News / National
'Tsvangirai insisted on being leader of new coalition party'
06 Oct 2015 at 10:03hrs | Views
MDC-T leader Morgan Tsvangirai's former chief political strategist Maxwell Zeb Shumba has sensationally claimed efforts to forge a grand coalition between his former boss and ex-Vice-President Joice Mujuru collapsed after Tsvangirai insisted on being leader of the new party.
Shumba claimed the talks collapsed after the two parties clashed over the proposed name for the hybrid party.
He claimed that Mujuru's emissary former Presidential Affairs minister Didymus Mutasa wanted the formation to be named Zanu People First.
Shumba said the People First (PF) project was meant to unite all democratic forces in the country, but there was resistance from different quarters, and this led him to form his own party - Zimbabwe First (ZimFirst).
Yesterday PF spokesperson Rugare Gumbo said, "Our position remains very clear. A coalition will come last."
"At the moment we are mobilising people. A coalition is not at the top of our agenda; it is not a priority right now. We are busy with the business of creating our party."
Shumba claimed that there was unanimous agreement that during the GNU (Government of National Unity) era, opposition leaders had joined the Zanu-PF gravy train and had abandoned people's interests which made him to author the concept Zimbabwe First in June 2014 after being appointed Tsvangirai's chief political strategist.
"Despite my best efforts towards selling this concept to Tsvangirai, it never went anywhere. I was later told he had rejected the concept."
Shumba said in December 2014, he authored Zimbabwe First National Convergence Concept that he shared with political parties while lobbying for Tsvangirai and Mujuru to be elders of that movement.
He claimed that Mujuru's emissary former Presidential Affairs minister Didymus Mutasa wanted the formation to be named Zanu People First.
Shumba said the People First (PF) project was meant to unite all democratic forces in the country, but there was resistance from different quarters, and this led him to form his own party - Zimbabwe First (ZimFirst).
Yesterday PF spokesperson Rugare Gumbo said, "Our position remains very clear. A coalition will come last."
"At the moment we are mobilising people. A coalition is not at the top of our agenda; it is not a priority right now. We are busy with the business of creating our party."
Shumba claimed that there was unanimous agreement that during the GNU (Government of National Unity) era, opposition leaders had joined the Zanu-PF gravy train and had abandoned people's interests which made him to author the concept Zimbabwe First in June 2014 after being appointed Tsvangirai's chief political strategist.
"Despite my best efforts towards selling this concept to Tsvangirai, it never went anywhere. I was later told he had rejected the concept."
Shumba said in December 2014, he authored Zimbabwe First National Convergence Concept that he shared with political parties while lobbying for Tsvangirai and Mujuru to be elders of that movement.
Source - newsday
