Mujuru under siege

SCORES of alleged Zimbabwe People First (ZimPF) supporters on Friday besieged former vice-president Joice Mujuru's Chisipite house, amid conflicting statements about their mission and identity.

While the protestors said they wanted to air their grievances to Mujuru, ZimPF officials said the group comprised of mostly Zanu-PF supporters and suspected State security officers.

The demonstrators, who started gathering at Mujuru's house around 2pm, accused ZimPF officials, among them Sylvester Nguni, Kudakwashe Bhasikiti, Rugare Gumbo and Bright Matonga, of blocking them from meeting Mujuru
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"How it started is that we tried for the past eight months to see the president [Mujuru] so that she addresses some challenges we are facing in the party. She was blocked from meeting us by the secretariat," alleged one of the demonstrators on Friday night.

"When we phoned her she said we must go through her office where we were told to observe protocol and bring names and ID numbers for security purposes and we did that.

"We waited for the response and there was none. There are other people who have put the party in their pockets."

The demonstrators said they demanded to see Mujuru, but instead they were addressed by Bhasikiti.
"That is when we continued pushing to see her. We said we would not leave until we saw her," said another demonstrator.

"After some time other senior people including Kudakwashe Bhasikiti came and told us we could not see Mujuru.

"After a long while and upon realising that she was not coming, that is when we decided to sing so that she would know we were still outside."

He said the singing attracted police officers who immediately came and dispersed them.

The demonstrators alleged the party was rocked by massive suspensions and resignation of members. They said that was the main reason they wanted to meet Mujuru.

Another supporter said they now wanted the inaugural ZimPF congress to be held as soon as possible to elect new leaders.

"The way forward is to elect new leaders at the congress. Mujuru has failed to lead ZimPF so we will have to find a new leader and this leader will have to be selected from the grassroots and will have the capacity to listen to ZimPF," he said.

"The problem is that the leadership is so quite. There is no such opposition leader who keeps quite under the circumstances."

ZimPF spokesperson Rugare Gumbo yesterday said he was not aware of the incident as he was in Gweru.

But in a statement, the ZimPF security department said the demonstration was conducted by known Zanu-PF activists that were paid to infiltrate the party and cause serious divisions.

Both Matonga and Nguni refused to comment on the allegations that they were micro-managing Mujuru.
Matonga said he was attending a funeral while Nguni said he was in a meeting and could not talk to the media.

ZimPF will hold its inaugural congress in October.