National People’s Party (NPP) members yesterday described
their leader Joice Mujuru as “captured”, saying they were duty-bound to deal
with the people surrounding her to rescue the troubled opposition outfit from
further disintegrating.
More than 100 officials convened in Harare yesterday
expressing concern at the state of affairs in the party and to map the way
forward.
The party officials also want the disbandment of the
People’s Rainbow Coalition, an electoral pact with three other little-known
political parties — Zimbabweans United for Democracy, Democratic Assembly for
Restoration and Empowerment and the splinter People’s Democratic Party —
calling it a coalition with zeros.
They said it was prudent to join the MDC Alliance.
They are also going to submit a petition raising their
concerns and calling for a number of drastic measures, among them the recalling
of secretary-general Gift Nyandoro.
This comes after scores of executives, including national
and some from various provinces, were either expelled or suspended last week
for various reasons.
This has also caused a mass exodus from the party,
threatening its existence, a few months before the general elections.
“The president [Mujuru] is captured because in her normal
senses, she cannot give a go-ahead to the vice-president (Samuel Sipepa Nkomo)
to send a Press statement firing people unconstitutionally because she is a
democrat. We are bringing people together and say let’s fight until we liberate
ourselves from ourselves,” Lloyd Masiya, the national youth boss, said
yesterday.
“The problem is not necessarily with the leader, but the
people surrounding her. There is a proverb that says a leader is only as strong
as people surrounding him/her, so she is surrounded by people who are extremely
factional. People are trying to derail NPP from its core values so that we
create another Zanu PF that doesn’t respect its people.”
Yesterday’s gathering accused some party leaders of
intimidating people against signing the petition and attending a meeting to
denounce other leaders accused of sowing divisions in the party.
“The continued holding of office by Gift Nyandoro is
unacceptable considering his public thuggish showdown with Jealousy Mawarire.
We urge you to encourage him to do the morally acceptable thing and step down,
failure of which you must exercise your constitutional authority and relieve
him of his duties lest he continues to be a moral eyesore for our public image,
thereby costing us membership growth and, by extension, potential votes,” the
petition read.
On the coalition, the petitioners described the alliance as
a waste of time and a bad strategy for the 2018 elections.
“As serious paid-up members who have been pivotal in
mobilising numbers for this party, we would like to hereby declare our
displeasure with the People’s Rainbow Coalition,” the petition read.
Masiya told the gathering that Mujuru was opening lines of
communication so as to reach out to them and address their concerns. Newsday
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