A ZAPU Council of Elders member, Lazarus Masuku, yesterday attacked the party’s former Bulawayo chairperson Retired Colonel Ray Ncube for allegedly working in cahoots with detractors of the party to destroy it ahead of next year’s general elections.
REPORT BY SILAS NKALA STAFF REPORTER
Masuku’s remarks came in the wake of weekend reports where Ncube was quoted as insinuating that Zapu needed leadership renewal as most top officials were too old to steer it to success.
“Ray is misleading the nation,” Masuku said.
“I think he is being used by our opposition to destroy the party ahead of elections. I was in the Zipra (Zimbabwe People’s Revolutionary Army) high command during the war where I engaged in transit with trainees accompanying them to and from training bases and camps. I did not see Ray. He is not the right person to talk about the removal of leaders.”
Masuku added Ncube was elected by the people to be chairperson “thinking that he would use his military experience to lead them, only to be disappointed when he engaged in allegedly destroying the party hence his expulsion”.
But Ncube yesterday lashed out at Masuku, questioning: “What does he want in politics at his age?
“All political parties must leave politics to able-minded and able-bodied people. Is Zapu a retirement place or is it a hospital where people wait to die in? In a way if he says old people must lead Zapu, that is Zanu PF politics which I am against. Old people must leave politics to the vibrant, young generation.”
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He said Masuku should also clarify which detractors he was referring to. Ncube was fired by the party National Executive Council on October 1 over allegations of trying to form parallel party structures.
The party also accused him of disrespecting protocol after he wrote a complaint letter to Zapu leader Dumiso Dabengwa, bypassing his immediate superiors.
