Zanu-PF factions in ugly fight

BULAWAYO Zanu-PF provincial secretary for administration, Elifasi Mashaba, was last Saturday accused by a party member of being a member of Justice minister Emmerson Mnangagwa's faction.

He was also accused of cancelling city centre district elections to save his faction from losing.

Mashaba confirmed the incident yesterday, but said the allegations were not directly addressed at him and dismissed the youth - only identified as Charumbira - as drunk and a rogue element.

There were reports of chaos on Saturday when Mashaba stopped an election for the chairperson of the city centre district pitting Douglas Gadzira and Joe Chiyangwa.

After the announcement of the cancellation of polls, Charumbira, who was also seeking election in the youth wing, stood up and accused Mashaba of stopping the election because he had realised that his Mnangagwa faction was going to lose.

"Charumbira said elections were being postponed because of factionalism.

"He went on to say it was known that Mashaba belonged to a faction led by Mnangagwa and that he and his team regularly visited their faction leader.

"Charumbira charged that Mashaba had realised that had the election gone on, his faction would lose," a source who attended the meeting told Southern Eye.

"Mashaba called security to chuck Charumbira out and that is when chaos started.

"Some members rallied behind Charumbira saying if Mashaba was chasing him out, he was chasing away everyone."

However, Mashaba yesterday said factionalism only existed in Charumbira's head and described him as a rowdy element who would face censure from the party for his statements.

"We do not take things that are said by a drunk person seriously. I do not belong to any faction and there is nothing like that in Bulawayo province. We are a united party," he said.

Mashaba said the elections were postponed after the realisation that some members had transferred their voting rights to the city centre, but remained members of the party's cell structures in high-density suburbs.

"The constitution allows one to transfer to the city centre and use their business addresses. Because most vendors in the city transact their business in town, many transferred to the city centre district, but are still using addresses of high-density areas and that causes confusion.

"When the register was checked, it was discovered that some members were registered in two places, at the city centre and at the high-density suburbs. They were advised to go and get transfer letters from their respective areas and also change addresses so there is no confusion."

Mashaba said the generality of party members understood the position "serve for one rogue element who stood up and said the things he said".

He added that the number of voters at Davies Hall was about 150 people and not 1 000 as had been reported.