Gumbo slams Tsvangirai coalition

Zimbabwe People First (ZPF) co-leader Rugare Gumbo has said his party will not join MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai's mooted grand coalition, arguing it is "opportunistic and exclusive".

He rubbished the alliance -which has seen Tsvangirai sign Memorandums of Understanding (MoU) with former ally Welshman Ncube and ex-Vice President Joice Mujuru - saying it was "rushed and lacked full consultation".

Gumbo, whose fledgling outfit recently split for the third time, hardly two years after its formation, told the Daily News yesterday that ZPF would seek to forge ''an all-inclusive" alliance outside the one being championed by Tsvangirai.

"We will not be part of such a coalition which came about through a rushed process without the consultation of stakeholders, including war veterans, the business community, civic society and social groups . . . because it will not yield the change that Zimbabweans are yearning for," the former Zanu-PF spokesperson said.

This comes as Tsvangirai's MoUs with Ncube and Mujuru -who recently ditched ZPF to form her own National People's Party (NPP) following an ugly row with Gumbo and others - have been widely seen as a harbinger to a grand coalition that will see the country's opposition parties field a single presidential candidate to take on President Robert Mugabe in the 2018 elections.

While Gumbo has distanced his party from the coalition, his co-leader in ZPF, Didymus Mutasa, is on record endorsing Tsvangirai as the "natural" leader of the coalition.

Describing the long-time Mugabe rival as a "real fighter for democracy", in a previous interview with the Daily News, Mutasa said Tsvangirai has fought hard in the battle for political change.

"For me, Tsvangirai should be the natural leader of the coalition because of who he is. The man has suffered a long time for political change in the country and what the National Electoral Reform Agenda (Nera) stands for what Tsvangirai and the MDC built and the rest of us are latecomers in this game," the former State Security minister in Mugabe's government said.

"We want a leader who will pursue a Pan Africanist agenda, someone who will do what we thought Mugabe would do but failed, and as ZPF, we want to have discussions about who should lead the coalition because when we wanted to do it while we were still with Mujuru, she prevaricated," Mutasa said.

Interestingly, Mujuru formed the NPP after falling out with her former allies on allegations that they were Zanu-PF agents and accused them of stalling coalition talks with Tsvangirai.

In response, MDC spokesperson Obert Gutu said "Gumbo . . . has got it horribly wrong".

"He is a former Zanu-PF member and he knows very well that we are dealing with a rabidly tyrannical and fascist regime that is now beyond reformation," he said, adding that "coalitions give us numbers and a certain degree of unity and focus as we confront the Zanu-PF regime in next year's elections".

"As a strong coalition, our push for electoral reforms is also more forceful and effective. There is absolutely nothing opportunistic nor exclusionary about a formidable coalition. In fact, no genuine and patriotic opposition political party has been deliberately excluded from the coalition talks," Gutu told the Daily News.