'Lies, damn lies… we did not join forces with any party,' says ZAPU

ZAPU party led by Dumiso Dabengwa has dismissed as lies reports that the party had formed a coalition with two MDC formations - led by Welshman Ncube and the newest splinter group MDC Renewal led by Tendai Biti.  

A local daily yesterday reported that a grand coalition comprising MDC, MDC Renewal, Zapu and MKD was due to be launched month end.

But in a statement gleaned by Byo24 news ZAPU national spokesperson Mjobisi Noko dismissed the reports as a hoax saying his party would not be rushed into signing any accord with any party prematurely.

"ZAPU is not going to be signing any Unity Pact or Agreement anytime soon as alleged by the Press. We have learnt from our mistakes and we will not be hoodwinked into premature agreements," Noko said in a statement.

"As a party we want to state categorically that we will not be participating in the signing of any grand coalition this month end as reported in the media as we have not made any decision of that sort."

Noko confirmed that ZAPU president, Dumiso Dabengwa last week convened a meeting in Kezi, Matabeleland South but said the meeting was to ‘update' ZAPU members about development regards any possibility of joining forces with other democrats.

"He (Dabengwa) was invited by our constituency in Sontala to update them about the development in the grand coalition talks but he never said we have joined with any party. He only gave a brief background of the talks and not anything concrete about the accord," said Noko.

He said his party had consulted with all party structures in the country's ten provinces and gathered their views on the issue but no decision had been made.

"We have consulted with all our structures and made resolutions which we submitted to our National Council but we have not arrived to any final decision, neither have we announced anything regards joining any party or anyone," charged Noko.

Noko rubbished claims that Dabengwa was contemplating giving the Presidency to Biti and Ncube should the grand coalition succeed saying that was "a premature supposition" as ZAPU remained a party with its own president.

However, Noko did not cast doubts over possibilities of joining forces with other political parties but said "we will be cautious and avoid blunders that we did in 1980 and 2013 when we prematurely signed unity accords."