The Insider - Faction threatens chaos at party congress

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The Insider - November 2007

Faction threatens chaos at party congress

A faction of ZANU-PF in Bulawayo led by mostly war veterans has threatened that there will be chaos at party’s the special congress in Bindura next month if the issue of elections in the province is not resolved before then.

The faction, known as the Ghodhi, said the elections that were allegedly held in the city were a sham as they involved only one faction called Petition which is loyal to local members of the politburo.

“The national political commissar Cde Elliot Manyika is going to be embarrassed if he endorses the election results because we are going to attend the congress and show the party who has the support of the people,” a spokesman for the Ghodhi faction said.

Manyika could not be contacted for comment.

Provincial elections for Bulawayo were originally scheduled for April 29 but they had to be cancelled after it emerged that there were two factions within the province, one of which had been locked out of Davis Hall where the elections were to be conducted.

Manyika called off the elections and a taskforce, led by his deputy Richard Ndlovu, was set up to restructure the party.

Interim executive spokesman Effort Nkomo said the restructuring exercise had been completed and elections had already been conducted at branch and district levels. He said those who were crying foul had “excluded themselves” from the process.

Ndlovu had repeatedly refused to comment on the restructuring exercise saying he wanted to brief his bosses first.

Members of the Ghodhi faction said they were going to contest the results because they had not been conducted according to the party constitution. They said Richard Ndlovu had failed to unite the two factions and had instead aligned himself with the Petition faction.

“As far as we are concerned the last democratic elections in the province were held in July 2004. Themba Ncube was elected provincial chairman but was suspended after the Dinyane meeting.

“Two factions attended the 2004 party congress, one led by George Mlala who was interim provincial chairman and another led by Isaac Dakamela who had been appointed by members of the politburo from the province. Delegates from both factions were properly accredited. How! We don’t know. So it has been an open secret that Bulawayo has two feuding factions,” the spokesman said.

Six provincial chairmen were fired from the party following the Dinyane meeting which was allegedly organised to oppose the appointment of Joyce Mujuru as vice-President. The meeting also allegedly sought to remove Joseph Msika and John Nkomo from the presidency and replace them with Emmerson Mnangagwa and Patrick Chinamasa.

The spokesman for the Ghodhi faction challenged the interim executive currently running Bulawayo province to produce minutes showing that elections had indeed been conducted because as far as they were aware the Petition faction did not have enough members required to set up electoral colleges.

“According to the party constitution, you have to establish an electoral college before any elections. You need an executive of at least 21 people at cell level. You need not less than 50 people to elect the cell executive.

“After that you need not less than 300 people to elect 102 members of the branch, and not less than 600 members to elect the executive of a district. The Petition faction does not have enough members at these levels to form an electoral college. So, how did they elect executives?”

The spokesman said the elections had been bulldozed by members of the politburo from Bulawayo who included Dumiso Dabengwa, John Nkomo and Information Minister Sikhanyiso Ndlovu because they wanted to protect their positions.

“All along they thought that the central committee was going to be dissolved at the special congress, so they wanted members who could vote them back into office,” the spokesman said. “But now there is only one item on the agenda, to endorse President Robert Mugabe as the party candidate.”

He, however, said the situation was very dicey because the entire central committee could still be dissolved in any member called for the dissolution and this was supported by more than six party provinces.

This was quite possible as some people felt that Mugabe should step down at the congress and give room to a new leadership.

The Petition faction supports those that want Mugabe to step down while the Ghodhi faction is spearheading Mugabe’s re-election campaign.

Posted- 6 November 2007

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