The National Patriotic Front is backing MDC Alliance presidential candidate Mr Nelson Chamisa in return for the Vice President post.
In an interview with Voice of America (VOA) Zimbabwe on
Friday last week, NPF women’s league chairperson Mrs Sarah Mahoka let the cat
out of the bag indicating that the fledgling political formation has decided to
support Mr Chamisa in return for the Vice President’s post.
“Bato redu arikuritungamirira izvozvi iyezvino hatina
president kuNPF. President wedu isusu ndi (Nelson) Chamisa. Chamisa ndiye
achapinda pahupresident, isusu tinotora hudeputy,” said Mrs Mahoka.
“Isusu takatobatana neAlliance because tinoda kubvisa junta
yakabvisa baba vaMugabe, vachiti baba vaMugabe vakura,” she added.
Spokesperson of the NPF faction that is presently being
fronted by interim president Ms Eunice Sandi-Moyo – who took over after the
recent purported ouster of Brigadier-General Ambrose Mutinhiri on June 8 –
corroborated Mrs Mahoko’s position, saying the senior party member was speaking
from an “informed position”.
“Cde Sarah Mahoka is a senior member of the party and she
was speaking from an informed position. She was very accurate in her statement
because it is a fact that our party is supporting Mr Nelson Chamisa to be
President. That is definite,” said Mr Mawarire.
“She was also talking about the negotiations that we are
having with the MDC Alliance where we have submitted our request that one of
our members should be the Vice President.”
He was, however, evasive on who was likely to assume the
envisaged Vice President’s post.
“The party will choose the person. We have our own
mechanisms as a party to choose the candidate. The Vice President will come
from the people who support our party. I cannot pre-empt the name of that
candidate. As it stands, the former First Lady is not an active member of NPF
and she is not in the running. . .” he said.
NPF senior members who are privy to the goings-on in the
five-month old party say the interim leader, Ms Sandi-Moyo, is a proxy of Ms
Mugabe, who intends to use her as a Trojan Horse to assume the levers of part.
It is believed that as the July 30 plebiscite draws near,
Mrs Mugabe is becomingly increasingly anxious as she intends to protect her
sprawling business empire.
Government recently opened up Mazowe Dam, which the former
First Lady allegedly sought to cordon off from villagers in order to support
one of her farms.
Mr Chamisa’ spokesperson Dr Nkululeko Sibanda yesterday
said the MDC Alliance’s presidential candidate does not announce appointments
through anyone but his office.
“We embrace anyone who wants to campaign for president
Chamisa. The truth of the matter is that all those who are supporting Mr
Chamisa are running with the winning horse because they know that he is going
to win this election.
“President Nelson Chamisa does not announce appointments
through anyone but his office, this information you are referring to is not
from his office,” said Dr Sibanda.
Those familiar with the goings on behind the scenes say the
former First Family has a haul of 21 farms, local and foreign investments,
including claims of Black Granite in Mutoko.
“There is an issue of farms that they (Mugabes) have been
leasing to whites. Here was a President who was preaching one-person, one-farm,
but who has 21 farms. But a good number which was being leased to white
farmers. And he knows that the new Government will have to want to choose one
out of the 21,” a senior Government official, who cannot be named for
professional reasons, said recently.
“But some of his investments, including the dairy and the
children’s project, were benefiting from a blurred accounting system between
those business propositions and State coffers. Now, they are worried that
unless they recapture State power, all those projects will crumble.”
It is also understood that the former First Family has been
frenziedly looking for a proxy to front their political interests.
They initially shopped around for Dr Joice Mujuru, who met
former President Robert Mugabe on January 30 this year, and after
unsuccessfully trying to rope her in their pet political project, they then
sounded Dr Thokozani Khupe.
They subsequently settled for Brig-Gen Mutinhiri to mind
the project, but he was allegedly expelled on June 8 for being “intransigent”.
An attempt to include Mr Savior Kasuwere, who was one of
the kingpins in the G40 faction, came to naught, including a desperate bid to
conscript lawyer Mr Farai Mutamangira.
As a last-ditch effort, they have decided to throw in their
lot with Mr Chamisa, whom they believe can derail the new political
administration.
Mr Chamisa, who is now largely being viewed as power hungry
and overly ambitious by some of the MDC Alliance principals, is believed to be
hesitating to grab the opportunity, but seems to have settled to making a
gentleman’s pact with the Mugabes.
But there are fears within the MDC Alliance camp that
broaching the subject with their supporters will ultimately squander their
reportedly diminishing political capital. Sunday Mail
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