Mujuru tells candidates to fund their campaigns

People's Rainbow Coalition (PRC) presidential candidate Joice Mujuru has ordered her council and parliamentary candidates to fund their own campaigns ahead of next weeks' elections.

In correspondence to the party's aspiring candidates last week, Mujuru's PRC said the alliance had failed to raise money for its election campaign.

In a letter following a meeting of the coalition's principals in Harare last week, the coalition's secretary-general, Gorden Moyo, said it was agreed that owing to circumstances beyond its control, the party would not be able to help its candidates financially.

Moyo expressed regret that the lack of resources had led to some of the party's candidates failing to adequately reach out to the electorate.

"PRC would have wanted to fully support the campaign, materially and financially, but circumstances beyond its control have led to the de-funding of the campaign which has resulted in the candidates failing to fully reach out to the electorate. This is regrettable," Moyo said.

He directed that all the PRC candidates must "do their best under these difficult circumstances".

He, however, promised  "some small support in terms of fuel" and election agents' assistance "shall be availed to the MPs in due course".

Moyo also revealed that the PRC had failed to provide an adequate number of polling agents. The PRC would "only be able to support just one election agent per polling station".

"Therefore all MPs and councillors are required to stick to this requirement except where the candidates are able to personally support extra agents.

"All Senators and PRs are also advised to work very closely with, and support MPs and councillors in all campaign programmes, both materially and financially," the letter said.

Moyo also announced that one of the PRC's principals, Gilbert Dzikiti, is now the coalition's spokesperson.

"All members are advised that … Dzikiti has been appointed to beef up the publicity team. He shall assist (Gift) Nyandoro as the spokesperson of PRC up until the immediate post-election period.

"In his new role … Dzikiti shall also assist Michael Phiri in handling the election-related logistics.

"All PRC spokespersons in all our five parties are required to ratchet up their publicity at national and provincial levels.

"On this note, the principals would like to thank the few youths who have kept the PRC flag high in the social media. But these need to be complimented by spokespersons."

The PRC also expressed concern that it continues to lose supporters to other parties while some of its candidates are allegedly campaigning for other parties.

Moyo threatened that "stern measures will be taken against all those found working against PRC as soon as the security concludes its investigation countrywide".

"Principals noted with concern that there are areas where some of our candidates are supporting independent candidates and candidates from other parties. The security team has been tasked to provide a full report on this sad development and measures will be taken before or after the elections," the letter said.

The 62-year-old Mujuru was former president Robert Mugabe's deputy for a decade and seen as the veteran leader's shoo-in successor until he fired her in 2014, accusing her of leading a plot to oust him.

She launched the National People's Party in March 2016 to challenge her ally-turned-adversary, and has been campaigning as a presidential candidate for the PRC coalition in next week's election, promising to revive the economy and repair strained relations with the West.