Chief Charumbira dismissed as “utter rubbish” reports
circulating on social media that he pleaded with CCC leader Mr Chamisa to
consider foregoing this year’s elections and instead join forces with President
Mnangagwa under a unity government.
He was alleged to have made the calls at Mbetu Village in
Charumbira communal lands on Sunday where he was part of mourners at the burial
of Mbuya Mafume, who is mother to Harare Mayor Mr Jacob Mafume.
Chief Charumbira, who is related to the Mafumes through a
family marriage, attended the funeral as a relative and also in his capacity as
a traditional leader of the area. Mr Chamisa and other CCC leaders, including
MPs and councillors and party members some clad in party regalia, attended the
funeral to commisserate with Mayor Mafume.
After Mr Chamisa had delivered his remarks at the funeral
and warded into politics, with the CCC leader describing President Mnangagwa as
“his brother” during his speech, Chief Charumbira then also delivered his own
speech but said he never intimated the need for a GNU in Zimbabwe.
“Of course, it is utter rubbish that I appealed to (Mr)
Chamisa to join President Mnangagwa in a GNU for whatever reason including to
avoid elections due this year. Of course, nothing can be further from the truth
because the unity I was talking about was the unity of all Zimbabweans to pull
and push in the same direction irrespective of political differences and who is
in power,”said Chief Charumbira.
“I was not talking about unity of political parties that
they must join to form a Government, no! It was unity to cast aside political
differences and come up with a single agenda to develop Zimbabwe in peace and
harmony without necessarily collapsing different political parties. I said we
must unite and contest elections in harmony and peace and this was predicated
on (Mr) Chamisa who earlier on in his speech had said President Mnangagwa is
his brother.
Chief Charumbira added, “I told (Mr) Chamisa that since he
openly conceded on his own during his own speech before I spoke that President
Mnangagwa is his brother, why then doesn’t he visit him at State House? Pay a
courtesy call on him as the President and big brother and drink tea together to
nourish harmony, peace and oneness in our country. I never talked about GNU as
purported,” said Chief Charumbira.
The Chiefs’ Council president said this was not the first
time he had called Mr Chamisa to be beholden to President Mnangagwa since the
CCC leader was the junior of the two “homeboys.”
“In the run-up to the 2018 harmonised elections, I
approached (Mr) Chamisa and asked him why he was challenging his homeboy
(President Mnangagwa) in an election instead of respecting him as the elder
brother and let him run his race.I was saying this as a person who is familiar
with both of them by virtue of my position as chief and on Sunday again I was
merely repeating the same message I first have him in 2018.”
Chief Charumbira said he also told people at the funeral
that they must not fight over political differences because in parliament
parliamentarians from different political formations sat side by side and ate
on the same table but never fought each other.
“I never said we should forego this year’s elections for a
GNU why would I say that when processes are already underway to hold polls as
constitutionally mandated? I was only highlighting that election outcomes
should not be the basis of not working in unison to grow our country as one
people with a shared past and a common future,” he added.
He said there was no basis for him to intimate that Zanu PF
did not want elections yet several surveys had already showed President
Mnangagwa is going to win this year’s harmonised elections. Herald
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