Zanu-PF 'burns' in Bulawayo

Zanu-PF's hopes of uniting its warring officials in Bulawayo ahead of the crucial 2018 elections could be diminishing as the provincial leadership on Saturday painted a picture of a party gripped by lawlessness and loss of trust among its officials.

Visiting secretary for administration, Ignatius Chombo sat stoned-faced as Bulawayo chairperson, Denis Ndlovu revealed the extent of the divisions in his province.

"There have been some suspensions that have been going on, some have refused to be suspended, we have lifted some suspensions we had previously made but we are realising some of those appear to be having cases.

"Here there are some we suspended but they keep attending our meetings some of them are even here present and that is causing a lot of confusion and I want this cleared in your presence (Chombo)," Ndlovu told Chombo at the party provincial headquarters, Davies Hall, on Saturday.

Tension has been high in Bulawayo ever since party officials were engaged in an orgy of violence which left one supporter needing hospitalisation when he was stabbed during the bloodletting incident. Zanu-PF is divided in Bulawayo along factional lines.

Politburo member Absolom Sikhosana acknowledged the deep-seated problems in the province.

"The problem is we don't respect what we do as a party. Here in Bulawayo there is a lot of intra-party fighting, there are divisions. We are trying in our small way as leadership to address the matter but we are failing to achieve that one-mindedness. We are failing," Sikhosana said.

"There is no discipline in the party. We are not behaving like cadres of the party. The way we are fighting is just abnormal," he added.

Former Matabeleland South governor Angeline Masuku whose suspension was recently lifted also weighed in by blaming the provincial leadership for the problems.

"There is a problem in Bulawayo. I believe one of the causes of the problems is that the leadership here does not recognise us, the national consultative assembly members. But for the sake of the party we have been quiet," said Masuku.

"The constitution shows how suspensions should be done… for instance in our case when we were suspended, the constitution was clearly not followed but because we are mature we kept quiet.

"We don't respect the constitution which is supposed to be guiding us," lamented Masuku.

Chombo ordered the provincial executive to respect the party constitution.

"Non-adherence to the party constitution is a problem, so let's have our party constitution today and you are supposed to have constitutional meetings every six months and wherever there is a disciplinary meeting or suspensions the constitution should be followed," said Chombo.