The unfolding drama in Zapu Bulawayo province deepened at the weekend as youths from 10 of the province’s 12 districts resolved to petition party president Dumiso Dabengwa demanding the reinstatement of ousted provincial chairperson Ray Ncube.Report by Khanyile Mlotshwa, Staff Reporter
Zapu last week expelled Ncube from the party, accusing him of conspiring to “create and, indeed, succeeding in forming a parallel party”.
The party’s British-based secretary-general Ralph Mguni in a letter dated October 1 told Ncube that the Zapu national executive committee (NEC) had met in Gweru on September 29 and decided to axe him.
But party sources that attended the meeting on Sunday said party youths wanted their ousted chairperson reinstated or “they are defecting en masse to the MDC.”
“We wrote a letter and attached the minutes of the meeting, which we shall take to the president,” a source said.
“We want to tell the president that we discussed the issue of Ncube and unanimously want him back. While our (youth) leaders preferred dialogue, most of us wanted confrontation over the issue. The districts are not happy with the handling of the issue and some of us if Ncube goes for good, we will call for a day when we will defect as a block to Welshman Ncube’s MDC.
“What is contained in Ncube’s letter to Dabengwa (that triggered the fissures) is true. It is a fact that, as it is, we are members but don’t have membership cards. It is a fact that we don’t have offices and operate from the streets. It is a fact that our Secretary General is based overseas and has no access to the grassroots.”
Provincial youth chairperson Ndodana Moyo admitted the meeting took place but declined to shed light on their resolutions.
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“We had a meeting yesterday but I cannot discuss what we discussed in the meeting or what our resolutions were in the press,” he said. Meanwhile, the provincial vice chairperson Memorial Malambane Dube on Saturday distanced the provincial executive from a letter written by ousted chair Ncube to Dabengwa.
“The province has to-date not been officially furnished with the letter,” he said. “In a meeting on the 7th of September 2012, which the chairman presided over, the provincial executive emphatically disassociated itself from the letter. The same sentiments were echoed in a meeting on the 3rd of October. It is therefore uncouth for anyone to purport that he was acting on behalf of the province when he was in fact expressing his individual views.”
Dube rubbished the resolution made at Amakhosi on September 30, which recommended the dissolution of the provincial executive. But Ncube yesterday said he stood with what is recorded in the minutes of the Amakhosi meeting.
“I concur with the provincial administrator’s letter and the minutes attached to it,” he said. “We had over 90% of the districts in attendance at that meeting.”
