No grand coalition for ZAPU says Dabengwa

ZAPU President Dumiso Dabengwa has ruled out any possibility that his party will go into any more alliances with other opposition parties.

Responding to a question on the Voice of America's Studio 7 on Wednesday night, on his party's position about the proposed grand coalition against ZANU PF, Dabengwa said that his party has had enough of being cheated in the coalitions and will not engage in any more such arrangements.

"Once beaten twice shy," said the veteran politician and intelligence guru.

"We have been manipulated long enough previously in these coalitions and shall not go into any of them again."

"It started with the Patriotic Front at Lancaster House when we thought we were discussing issues united only for people to turn back and contest elections separately. Then came the 1987 unity accord with ZANU PF and we were robbed too. Just before the elections in 2013 we engaged with the guys from (Welshman) Ncube's MDC and nothing came from it," said Dabengwa.

Speculation have been rife in the local political scenes that Dabengwa's ZAPU was in serious negotiations with the Welshman Ncube MDC and other opposition political parties to form a united force against ZANU PF and the Morgan Tsvangirai led MDC T.

Speaking in the same interview, Dabengwa said that the country's economy was bound to collapse under ZANU PF rule with or without the targeted sanctions that the ruling party is using as an excuse for the economic downturn.

"Whether there were or no sanctions, ZANU PF was bound to fail to run this country's economy because of their poor administration," said Dabengwa.

The "Black Russian" as Dabengwa is known in the country's political spheres went on to castigate ZANU PF for claiming that the indeginisation policy was a ZANU PF idea claiming that the policy was created within the ZAPU structures.

"This idea was started as way back as 1998 by people who were once in the ZAPU structures as it was always been a ZAPU policy. Its wrong to say the idea was created by (Saviour) Kasukuwere (former Minister of Youth Empowerment and Indeginisation)."

Dabengwa's ZAPU is gradually gaining ground into the country's political pie chart as the MDC factions continue to fail to remain united and provide competitive opposition to ZANU PF. ZAPU members are slowly gaining confidence in their party's growth prompting its leadership to divert from the grand plan idea.