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Unity Accord 'dies' as ex-Zapu cadres are booted out from Zanu-PF structures

by Staff reporter
28 Nov 2014 at 06:47hrs | Views
THE booting out of Matabeleland bigwigs who are senior Zapu members, but lost the Zanu-PF central committee positions is a clear indication that the marriage between Zanu-PF and-PF Zapu has finally come to an end.

Politburo member and Bulawayo political head Sikhanyiso Ndlovu, former Matabeleland South governor Angeline Masuku, youth chairperson Absolom Sikhosana and former deputy president of Senate, Naison Khutshwekhaya Ndlovu lost the Zanu-PF central committee positions over the weekend.

Historically, President Robert Mugabe appointed the chairperson and vice-president from former-PF Zapu members, but indications are that for the first time since the first congress,-PF Zapu members are playing a second fiddle to their Zanu-PF counterparts.

This has been exacerbated by the booting out of Matabeleland bigwigs - Speculation that Mugabe intends to pick Speaker of Parliament Jacob Mudenda as chairperson may also put paid to the façade of unity, considering that the former governor ditched Zapu before the signing of the Unity Accord.

Bulawayo Provincial Affairs minister Eunice Sandi Moyo, whose name has been bandied as a possible candidate for the vice-presidency, also ditched Zapu before the Unity Accord.

In an interview about the goings-on in Zanu-PF, especially on the implications of the sidelining of the former Zapu members, Zapu leader Dumiso Dabengwa said the removal of the leaders had no effect on the Unity Accord since that pact died in 2009 when he and other members pulled out of Zanu-PF.

"We pulled out of the Unity Accord in 2009," he said.

"We wrote a letter to the president of Zanu-PF (Mugabe) telling him that we were pulling out.

"Anyone who remained, we told him that they were remaining as individuals and former members of-PF Zapu."

Dabengwa said they pulled out of Zanu-PF because the unity pact was no longer achieving what it was purposed to achieve and as far as he was concerned, the Unity Accord was dead in the water.

"So what is happening in Zanu-PF has no bearing on the Unity Accord, because it is no longer there," he said.

However, Ndlovu, one of the top Zapu leaders to bite the dust, said the removal of Zanu-PF bigwigs from Matabeleland from the central committee did not herald the death of the pact which was signed in 1987 as it was "unquestionable".

He said the newcomers would be taught the revolutionary way and-PF Zapu principles so that they do not go astray.


Source - Southern Eye