News / National
'Mujuru not committed to coalition, grandstanding'
24 Jul 2017 at 08:43hrs | Views
TRANSFORM Zimbabwe (TZ) leader Jacob Ngarivhume yesterday accused National People's Party leader Joice Mujuru of political grandstanding and not being committed to the ongoing coalition talks with other opposition leaders.
Both Mujuru and Ngarivhume were involved in coalition talks with MDC-T leader Morgan Tsvangirai and MDC leader Welshman Ncube, but concerns have been raised over the NPP leader's pursuance of a separate alliance.
Ngarivhume said precious time was being wasted as some leaders were going backwards and forth regarding the pact, which was expected to sponsor a single presidential candidate to challenge President Robert Mugabe in next year's elections.
Besides engaging Tsvangirai, Mujuru has gone on to sign memoranda of understanding with two other political parties from Coalition of Democrats (Code) amid reports that several other smaller parties were lined up to join her new alliance.
"We feel as a political party that such behaviour is not fruitful and useful for building an alliance to make sure that we defeat (President Robert) Mugabe next year and I think that backwards and forth has been very worrying to us as a political party and the people of Zimbabwe," Ngarivhume said.
"It seems we are going backwards and forth and this is very unfortunate for the cause of democracy and for the cause of bringing everyone together to fight Mugabe next year. We hope she can join us down the line if she changes her mind, but we are also not convinced of her status as a bonafide opposition leader."
However, Mujuru's spokesperson and NPP secretary general designate, Gift Nyandoro dismissed Ngarivhume as a "little man" trying to get relevance by commenting on issues way above his station.
"NPP is not involved in coalition talks with a political party whose leader goes by the name Ngarivhume. Our talks with Tsvangirai are bilateral and not multilateral. Put simply, I do not recall the alleged Ngarivhume being part of our progressive talks with the MDC-T," Nyandoro said.
"It, therefore, follows that if indeed the alleged Ngarivhume has made such ill-informed and reckless utterances he could be either exercising his freewill of the prophetic prowess of doom or he could be a political amateur seeking relevance by commenting on a matter involving political leadership of substance, hoping to achieve cheap political mileage."
Both Mujuru and Ngarivhume were involved in coalition talks with MDC-T leader Morgan Tsvangirai and MDC leader Welshman Ncube, but concerns have been raised over the NPP leader's pursuance of a separate alliance.
Ngarivhume said precious time was being wasted as some leaders were going backwards and forth regarding the pact, which was expected to sponsor a single presidential candidate to challenge President Robert Mugabe in next year's elections.
Besides engaging Tsvangirai, Mujuru has gone on to sign memoranda of understanding with two other political parties from Coalition of Democrats (Code) amid reports that several other smaller parties were lined up to join her new alliance.
"We feel as a political party that such behaviour is not fruitful and useful for building an alliance to make sure that we defeat (President Robert) Mugabe next year and I think that backwards and forth has been very worrying to us as a political party and the people of Zimbabwe," Ngarivhume said.
"It seems we are going backwards and forth and this is very unfortunate for the cause of democracy and for the cause of bringing everyone together to fight Mugabe next year. We hope she can join us down the line if she changes her mind, but we are also not convinced of her status as a bonafide opposition leader."
However, Mujuru's spokesperson and NPP secretary general designate, Gift Nyandoro dismissed Ngarivhume as a "little man" trying to get relevance by commenting on issues way above his station.
"NPP is not involved in coalition talks with a political party whose leader goes by the name Ngarivhume. Our talks with Tsvangirai are bilateral and not multilateral. Put simply, I do not recall the alleged Ngarivhume being part of our progressive talks with the MDC-T," Nyandoro said.
"It, therefore, follows that if indeed the alleged Ngarivhume has made such ill-informed and reckless utterances he could be either exercising his freewill of the prophetic prowess of doom or he could be a political amateur seeking relevance by commenting on a matter involving political leadership of substance, hoping to achieve cheap political mileage."
Source - newsday
