By Mugove Tafirenyika
Zimbabwe People First (ZPF) elders — Rugare Gumbo and Didymus Mutasa — have said they will not fight former ally Joice Mujuru over the party’s name but co-exist as separate political entities using the same name.
Gumbo told the Daily News yesterday that while he and Mutasa were the founders and custodians of ZPF, his camp will not approach the courts in an attempt to block Mujuru from using the party name.
“If they think they can hold a congress, they can go ahead, it is their democratic right and we will not make any attempt to stop them because we are going to have ours in May, if all goes well,” Gumbo said.
“What is a fact and cannot be wished away is that we formed this party and we remain its bona fide owners after she (Mujuru) had failed in the mandate we had given her to lead us,” he said.
“Now the reality is that we head ZPF. Anything they want to do in the name of a congress is a circus and that is why we will not challenge them,” Gumbo said, adding “we have other serious issues to worry about than to think about what other parties are doing”.
This comes as Mujuru — who no longer sees eye-to-eye with Gumbo and Mutasa following a fallout over her leadership — has reportedly drafted a list of preferred lieutenants to take up key positions in her camp, ahead of their convention.
These include Samuel Sipepa Nkomo and either John Shumba Mvundura or Elliot Kasu as her two deputies.
While Mujuru’s ZPF spokesperson Jealousy Mawarire has said the congress is set for end of March or beginning of April, the exact date is expected to be announced tomorrow after a national executive council meeting.
He, however, said “the fact that we are going for national convention means that all positions, including that of the president down to the lowest position, are vacant and anyone can contest because we are a democratic party”. Daily News
