News / National
The infiltration of Zapu by Zanu-PF
06 May 2011 at 00:24hrs | Views
In what has left members of the opposition ZAPU party in South Africa
baffled and shell-shocked, it has emerged that the party's leadership in
that country has been hijacked and hoodwinked by Zanu PF agents,
elements and functionaries.
Zapu, which under the chairmanship of Dubizizwe, held a controversial conference in which a new provincial executive council led by Dingilizwe Mpondo was voted in last month. The outcome of that election is still being hotly disputed by the majority of the party membership who argue that the Council of Elders rigged the plebiscite in favour of the Mpondo-led faction who comprise people with a strong Zanu PF background so as to block the pro-democracy-oriented faction led by the veteran human rights and constitutional activist, George Mkhwanazi.
The alleged rigging is said to have taken several forms including the withholding of information about the date of the election from party members in the districts known to be opposed to Mpondo's candidacy until just two days before the conference. This, according to party insiders, is contrary to the party's constitutional regulations which stipulate that such a notice should be given at least 7 days before the event. This led to some delegates from the disapproved districts failing to attend the conference. Their proxies were also denied the right to vote on the behalf of their absent comrades by the partisan Council of Elders. This, together with the exclusion of Branch executives, Youths and women, literally delivered the province to the Zanu-PF agents and functionaries.
In the run-up to the Provincial Elections, the Council of Elders, contrived to block popular candidates by crafting controversial Rules and Guidelines for Elections which included the proscription of activists who had got arrested in Zimbabwe for opposing the Zanu-PF regime. Districts such as Pretoria, Lookout Masuku and Mpumalanga and party organs such as the Youth Front and ZAWU which were perceived to be led by people without the necessary Zanu-PF credentials, were excluded from the elections.
Those with Zanu-PF background clearly enjoy the trust and favour of members of the Council of Elders (most of them Zipra war veterans) who are also strategic as an Electoral Supervisors. The pro-democracy group which enjoys popular support is viewed with deep suspicion as they are perceived to be too radical for the comfort of party bigwigs.
The ZAPU party members are particularly riled by the double membership of Mpondo and most of his executive members and cronies who include Luke Sayi, Pretty Ncube and Ngqabutho Sibanda who have not resigned from Zanu-PF up to now. Mpondo,whose real surname is Nkomo from Lower Gwelu, is a member of a ZANU-PF economic empowerment forum whose patron is Saviours Kasukuwere, the Zanu-PF Minister for Indigenization and Economic Empowerment. The Business Forum is chaired by Ngqabutho Sibanda, a seasoned ZANU PF activist who is also a co-owner of Founders School, in Pretoria with Mpondo and the two, together with their wives, are the Financial/Marketing and Academic Studies Directors respectively.
Sibanda, who joined a ZAPU Hillbrow branch on the same day with his business partner, Mpondo in June 2009, later transferred to another ZAPU branch in the East Rand where he is still active. The Business Forum is registered with the South African Department of Social Welfare Services as a Non-Profit Organisation under the name Zanu-PF SA Heritage Business Forum.
In a communication with Minister Kasukuwere, Mr. Ngqabutho Sibanda, who also seats in the Zanu-PF South Africa District as Coordinator of economic activities wrote:
"Hon Minister, Iam proud of you as the Minister responsible for Indigenization and Economic Empowerment but I have to request your assistance in our newly formed Business Forum (ZANU PF SA HERITAGE BUSINESS FORUM) in South Africa. We have managed to group people (Zimbabweans) who are interested in business opportunities in Zimbabwe. We need your wisdom".
On the 5 of March 2011 Mr. Dingilizwe Mpondo also wrote the following lines in praise of Zanu-PF and the strategies that had to be adopted in dealing with the media in its presentation of Zanu-PF as a violent party:
"This is one of the best ways of winning in the Media Circles. U.S. Secretary of State said they are losing big time on media war to RT and AJEZEERA. Let's make sure they lose one against ZANU PF and the people of Zimbabwe. Our land our Pride."
Amongst the many planned activities of the Forum in its bid to promote Zanu-PF's financial capacity to fight against imperial enemies is to fund raise for that party and send the proceeds to the Headquarters in Zimbabwe. The Forum also undertook to print Zanu-PF flyers and T-shirts and send them home for distribution.
However the most enterprising adventure of the Mpondo-Sibanda-Sayi team is that in one such fundraising function held on the evening of 1st October, 2010, at Balalaika Hotel, Sandton, Johannesburg, the Forum invited Dr. Dumiso Dabengwa, the President of ZAPU as its guest of honour.All the members of the Sibanda-Sayi-Mpondo team together with their other comrades from Zanu-PF were present. It is however not clear whether the Forum was fundraising for ZAPU or ZANU-PF on this particular instance.
Curiously, the last ZAPU provincial conference held on 20 March, 2011, in which Mpondo was elected chairman, was presided over by members of the Business Forum who included Mike Moyo who was the first Zapu South Africa interim security secretary before he resigned from the post citing 'conflict of interest' as he claimed he had 'big business tenders' with the Government of Zimbabwe.
What is particularly worrisome to genuine Zapu supporters is that the Zanu-PF crew appears to be enjoying the trust of the senior party leadership who may not be aware that they are misplacing their confidence on elements bent on destroying the party. This group appears to have literally hoodwinked the senior party leadership using their superior financial muscles which the cash-strapped party finds difficult to resist. The leadership appears to be held to ransom by the group who also misappropriated party membership contributions.
Mpondo's deputy, Thulani Dube, doubles up as Chairman of a Zanu-PF branch in Soweto. Mpondo, a former member of the Zimbabwe Air force, is part of a batch of state security personnel who were deployed in South Africa to counter the MDC tsunami on the international arena.
Luke Sayi, the chief strategist in the Mpondo group and the domesticator of the ZAPU leadership, is Emmerson Mnangagwa's cousin from Silobela. On the recommendations of Mnanangwa, Sayi was recruited into the CIO in 1989 and sent for a scholarship in the USA that same year. A military aviation engineer with the DENEL arms manufacturer in Johannesburg, Sayi was deployed in Canada before being re-posted to South Africa.The ZAPU leadership is alleged to be hopelessly under Sayi's leash, hence their failure to deal with irregular procedures that benefited his group.
Where have you ever seen an opposition party which gets assisted in its fundraising efforts by members of the ruling party? Is it normal that an opposition party enlists the services of a genocidal ruling party-aligned business forum to conduct its internal elections? Is it not revulsive that an opposition party gets so totally infiltrated by an adversary political formation without its members and senior leadership being bothered? Cry my beloved ZAPU. My heart bleeds profusely.
By Ntombizodwa Luphahla [ZAPU branch member, RSA] Email: lopeznto@gmail.com
Zapu, which under the chairmanship of Dubizizwe, held a controversial conference in which a new provincial executive council led by Dingilizwe Mpondo was voted in last month. The outcome of that election is still being hotly disputed by the majority of the party membership who argue that the Council of Elders rigged the plebiscite in favour of the Mpondo-led faction who comprise people with a strong Zanu PF background so as to block the pro-democracy-oriented faction led by the veteran human rights and constitutional activist, George Mkhwanazi.
The alleged rigging is said to have taken several forms including the withholding of information about the date of the election from party members in the districts known to be opposed to Mpondo's candidacy until just two days before the conference. This, according to party insiders, is contrary to the party's constitutional regulations which stipulate that such a notice should be given at least 7 days before the event. This led to some delegates from the disapproved districts failing to attend the conference. Their proxies were also denied the right to vote on the behalf of their absent comrades by the partisan Council of Elders. This, together with the exclusion of Branch executives, Youths and women, literally delivered the province to the Zanu-PF agents and functionaries.
In the run-up to the Provincial Elections, the Council of Elders, contrived to block popular candidates by crafting controversial Rules and Guidelines for Elections which included the proscription of activists who had got arrested in Zimbabwe for opposing the Zanu-PF regime. Districts such as Pretoria, Lookout Masuku and Mpumalanga and party organs such as the Youth Front and ZAWU which were perceived to be led by people without the necessary Zanu-PF credentials, were excluded from the elections.
Those with Zanu-PF background clearly enjoy the trust and favour of members of the Council of Elders (most of them Zipra war veterans) who are also strategic as an Electoral Supervisors. The pro-democracy group which enjoys popular support is viewed with deep suspicion as they are perceived to be too radical for the comfort of party bigwigs.
The ZAPU party members are particularly riled by the double membership of Mpondo and most of his executive members and cronies who include Luke Sayi, Pretty Ncube and Ngqabutho Sibanda who have not resigned from Zanu-PF up to now. Mpondo,whose real surname is Nkomo from Lower Gwelu, is a member of a ZANU-PF economic empowerment forum whose patron is Saviours Kasukuwere, the Zanu-PF Minister for Indigenization and Economic Empowerment. The Business Forum is chaired by Ngqabutho Sibanda, a seasoned ZANU PF activist who is also a co-owner of Founders School, in Pretoria with Mpondo and the two, together with their wives, are the Financial/Marketing and Academic Studies Directors respectively.
Sibanda, who joined a ZAPU Hillbrow branch on the same day with his business partner, Mpondo in June 2009, later transferred to another ZAPU branch in the East Rand where he is still active. The Business Forum is registered with the South African Department of Social Welfare Services as a Non-Profit Organisation under the name Zanu-PF SA Heritage Business Forum.
In a communication with Minister Kasukuwere, Mr. Ngqabutho Sibanda, who also seats in the Zanu-PF South Africa District as Coordinator of economic activities wrote:
"Hon Minister, Iam proud of you as the Minister responsible for Indigenization and Economic Empowerment but I have to request your assistance in our newly formed Business Forum (ZANU PF SA HERITAGE BUSINESS FORUM) in South Africa. We have managed to group people (Zimbabweans) who are interested in business opportunities in Zimbabwe. We need your wisdom".
On the 5 of March 2011 Mr. Dingilizwe Mpondo also wrote the following lines in praise of Zanu-PF and the strategies that had to be adopted in dealing with the media in its presentation of Zanu-PF as a violent party:
"This is one of the best ways of winning in the Media Circles. U.S. Secretary of State said they are losing big time on media war to RT and AJEZEERA. Let's make sure they lose one against ZANU PF and the people of Zimbabwe. Our land our Pride."
Amongst the many planned activities of the Forum in its bid to promote Zanu-PF's financial capacity to fight against imperial enemies is to fund raise for that party and send the proceeds to the Headquarters in Zimbabwe. The Forum also undertook to print Zanu-PF flyers and T-shirts and send them home for distribution.
However the most enterprising adventure of the Mpondo-Sibanda-Sayi team is that in one such fundraising function held on the evening of 1st October, 2010, at Balalaika Hotel, Sandton, Johannesburg, the Forum invited Dr. Dumiso Dabengwa, the President of ZAPU as its guest of honour.All the members of the Sibanda-Sayi-Mpondo team together with their other comrades from Zanu-PF were present. It is however not clear whether the Forum was fundraising for ZAPU or ZANU-PF on this particular instance.
Curiously, the last ZAPU provincial conference held on 20 March, 2011, in which Mpondo was elected chairman, was presided over by members of the Business Forum who included Mike Moyo who was the first Zapu South Africa interim security secretary before he resigned from the post citing 'conflict of interest' as he claimed he had 'big business tenders' with the Government of Zimbabwe.
What is particularly worrisome to genuine Zapu supporters is that the Zanu-PF crew appears to be enjoying the trust of the senior party leadership who may not be aware that they are misplacing their confidence on elements bent on destroying the party. This group appears to have literally hoodwinked the senior party leadership using their superior financial muscles which the cash-strapped party finds difficult to resist. The leadership appears to be held to ransom by the group who also misappropriated party membership contributions.
Mpondo's deputy, Thulani Dube, doubles up as Chairman of a Zanu-PF branch in Soweto. Mpondo, a former member of the Zimbabwe Air force, is part of a batch of state security personnel who were deployed in South Africa to counter the MDC tsunami on the international arena.
Luke Sayi, the chief strategist in the Mpondo group and the domesticator of the ZAPU leadership, is Emmerson Mnangagwa's cousin from Silobela. On the recommendations of Mnanangwa, Sayi was recruited into the CIO in 1989 and sent for a scholarship in the USA that same year. A military aviation engineer with the DENEL arms manufacturer in Johannesburg, Sayi was deployed in Canada before being re-posted to South Africa.The ZAPU leadership is alleged to be hopelessly under Sayi's leash, hence their failure to deal with irregular procedures that benefited his group.
Where have you ever seen an opposition party which gets assisted in its fundraising efforts by members of the ruling party? Is it normal that an opposition party enlists the services of a genocidal ruling party-aligned business forum to conduct its internal elections? Is it not revulsive that an opposition party gets so totally infiltrated by an adversary political formation without its members and senior leadership being bothered? Cry my beloved ZAPU. My heart bleeds profusely.
By Ntombizodwa Luphahla [ZAPU branch member, RSA] Email: lopeznto@gmail.com
Source - ZAPU branch RSA
