ZAPU elective Congress set for next year

ZAPU party will hold its elective Congress as the party seeks to invigorate its outfit to match other groupings in the country's political battlefield and also prepare for the 2018 general election, its president Dumiso Dabengwa said yesterday.

Dabengwa who called a press briefing in Bulawayo yesterday ostensibly to correct erroneous reports that the party had joined forces with the Renewal Team which broke away from the ‘T' suffixed MDC led by Tsvangirai revealed that the party was "currently undergoing a restructuring exercise in preparation for the elections."

Dabengwa said he had summoned the Press to announce that the party was ‘alive' and active in its structures.

"I want to let you know that Zapu is dead. We are active in all the provinces and our structures hold meetings even if we don't invite you," he said amid laughter from members of the Press.

He said the party will hold its youth and women's wings congresses in between January and March before they decide finalise on the date for the main Congress.

Quizzed whether he will seek reelection, the former intelligence supremo retorted: "It depends on the people. The power lies with them. If they nominate me, that's it."

Zapu held its first congress in 2010, twenty three year after the party held its Congress, during the late vice president Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo's reign.

Since then Dabengwa, the former Home Affairs minister and Zanu PF politburo member has been at the helm of the party, attracting criticism from political pundits who feel the experienced politician is not giving the party the edge to win any election.

Although the party seemed determined to contest last year's general elections, it lost embarrassingly despite clinching a hurried pact with MDC led by Welshman Ncube- which a also lost dismally.