ZANU NDONGA JOINS ZANU PF

ZANU (Ndonga) has joined the ruling Zanu-PF in what could be seen as a clear indication of confidence in the party.

The decision to dissolve Zanu (Ndonga) was endorsed by the opposition party’s executive members at a meeting held in Harare yesterday.

Speaking after the meeting, former Zanu (Ndonga) president Mr Wilson Khumbula was quoted by ZBC as saying the opposition party is now fully joining Zanu- PF.

“I call upon all former Zanu (Ndonga) members to adhere to our decision that the party Zanu (Ndonga) dissolved in February 2015 and joined Zanu-PF to become one party following the final round of negotiations with representatives of Zanu-PF led by Hon Dr Win BJ Mlambo,” said Mr Khumbula.

He said the decision to join Zanu-PF was downplayed by the G40 cabal which had teamed up with its Manicaland provincial executive.

“Our members were denied entry into Zanu-PF which saw some of our members enticed to other parties. The decision to join Zanu-PF was downplayed by the G40 cabal,” said Mr Khumbula.
The former opposition leader said as Zimbabwe gears for the forthcoming harmonised elections, members of Zanu (Ndonga) are being called upon to register and vote for Zanu-PF.

“Now that the G40 cabal was brought to book, I call upon all Zanu (Ndonga) members to come back to Zanu-PF. We have agreed with the leadership of the new dispensation led by His Excellency Cde Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa that all our members are very much welcome into the party since we started together in 1963 as one party,” Mr Khumbula was quoted as saying.

Zanu-PF spokesperson Cde Simon Khaya Moyo welcomed the decision by Zanu (Ndonga) to re-join the ruling party and urged new comers to embrace the revolutionary party’s values, vision and rules governing it. “Zanu-PF is a people’s party with membership across the country and welcomes anyone who believes in its values and ethos. We are the only party in the country with clear policies and programmes directed towards the upliftment of the quality of the lives of our people. It is therefore not surprising to learn that Zanu (Ndonga) or anyone has joined the party because they believe in its ideas,” he said.

Cde Khaya Moyo said Zanu-PF is an open party whose focus is on economic emancipation of people.
“We are an open party, but whosoever joins us must live by our rules and regulations, and there is a constitution which guides the party and therefore one must subscribe to the vision of that constitution. 

We welcome Zanu Ndonga including every patriotic Zimbabwean,” he said.
“We don’t want opportunists, we are looking at committed cadres who know the history of the liberation struggle and what we fought for. Our focus is on economic emancipation of our people since we are also our own political liberators so shall we be our own economic liberators.”

Zanu (Ndonga) was founded by the late veteran nationalist Cde Ndabaningi Sithole.
Cde Sithole died in 2000.

The party consistently won the Chipinge seat, which happened to fall in Cde Sithole’s home area, until 2005.

Mr Khumbula, who was Cde Sithole’s deputy, took over the party after the death of his predecessor but fared dismally in the 2002 presidential elections before the party went on to lose its parliamentary seat in the 2005 elections.

Sharp divisions followed afterwards as some leaders started questioning his leadership, resulting in two factions emerging, led by Mr Khumbula and Mr Gondai Vhutuza.

Another splinter group later sprang up fronted by former chairperson of the party, Mr Reketayi Semwayo, who forged an alliance with MDC-T in a bid to win the Chipinge Central National Assembly seat in 2013, but lost.

According to the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (Zec), there are more than 80 political parties that will compete against each in the forthcoming elections. Chronicle

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