Former Zanu PF veteran politician and founder member, Enos Nkala, has urged Zanu PF to drop President Robert Mugabe’s candidature at the party’s forthcoming national conference in December if the party is to stand a chance of winning the next general elections.
Nkala, who has openly declared he had “a low opinion” of the party’s 87-year-old leader, told NewsDay yesterday Zanu PF faced a bleak future with President Mugabe as its next candidate.
“Zanu PF must throw away (President) Mugabe if it wants to survive the next elections. If not, then they must forget about getting into power in a free and fair election, it’s a waste of time,” he said.
He said the current Zanu PF leadership comprised “cowboys, bootlickers, power seekers and fly-by-night politicians in pursuit of glory and personal enrichment”.
“It is sad that I see no one who has the capacity to remove or challenge (President) Mugabe,” said Nkala. Nkala said the current Zanu PF leadership was made up of old people with no vision for the country’s future, adding if President Mugabe got the nod to lead the party again after the Bulawayo conference in December, that would spell its demise.
“(MDC-T leader) Morgan Tsvangirai will win against (President) Mugabe no matter what people say about him. Hate him, insult him, but he is the only person who has the potential to win the election if it is done in a free and fair manner,” he said.
Nkala said President Mugabe would be lucky if he managed to garner 26% of votes in the next polls which the former guerilla leader insists should be held in March 2012.
“Considering what is currently prevailing in that party, it is the party that I participated in its formation, but I do not have any respect for it anymore. You can just put it in the dustbin where it belongs. It does not worry me anymore,” said Nkala.
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But, Zanu PF national spokesperson Rugare Gumbo was short of words when contacted for comment on Nkala’s remarks.
“I do not want to comment about what Nkala said. He is a veteran of the struggle of liberation. I cannot say anything about what he said. I can only say we are obviously preparing for elections. That is what we are doing at the moment,” said Gumbo.
Nkala, at whose Highfield, Harare, house the first architects of Zanu PF met in August 1963 to form the liberation party, has remained a strong critic of the party he left unceremoniously two decades ago following his fallout with President Mugabe.
Recently, the former Defence minister declared he did not want to be buried at the National Heroes’ Acre and courted controversy after he produced his own list of candidates suitable for interment at the national shrine. The list includes some non-Zanu PF functionaries.
