Zanu PF politburo deserters Dumiso Dabengwa and Simba Makoni yesterday said they were not going to return to Zanu PF despite desperate calls by President Robert Mugabe.
By Everson Mushava
Mugabe, in a passionate plea for the likes of Dabengwa and other former PF Zapu cadres to return to the party, said the decision by the former combatants to leave the party was one thing that made him “cry”. But Dabengwa yesterday said he would not heed the call unless the Unity Accord signed in 1987 was reviewed.
Speaking at the unveiling ceremony of the statue of the late Vice-President Joshua Nkomo on Sunday in Bulawayo Mugabe said: “Yesterday he (Nkomo) was telling you to go to this area and you said ‘yes sir’. So now that he is gone, you think that since he is in the grave, he can now be disobeyed?
“Those (war veterans) are the ones who really make me cry because they were under us, under our command. They should never be disunited, they should be united, because the ideology that we based our struggle on, whether we were friends with the Soviet Union or China, it was the same. You settle your contradictions by sitting down and discussing.”
However, Dabengwa, who is Zapu president and a former Zanu PF politburo member, told NewsDay that the late nationalist Nkomo signed the unity accord to save people, but the unity pact itself was defective because it was structured in such a way that PF Zapu played second fiddle. He said he does not envisage the possibility of Zapu rejoining Zanu PF again.
“Unless there are serious negotiations to review the agreement, we will not go back,” Dabengwa said.
“I cannot comment on the issue as an individual. We do collective decisions. The decision to pull out of the Unity Accord was not mine alone. It was assented to by the party.
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“That is the issue we have to respond to. We will meet after the holidays. At the moment, everyone is busy and some of them have already gone for holidays.”
Mavambo/Kusile/Dawn leader Simba Makoni, who also left Zanu PF, said he would not consider rejoining Zanu PF no matter the circumstances.
He said the circumstances that prevailed when he left the party were still there.
“When I left the party, I explained the reason why. I have always said that my life is now outside Zanu PF. They have destroyed the party.” Makoni said.
Asked what he thinks were the reasons why Nkomo could not take up the post of President he was offered by Mugabe in 1980, Makoni said the post was ceremonial and the late nationalist would have felt humiliated to take up the post.
“I am sure Nkomo gave the reasons why he rejected to be President. Mugabe should have explained why Nkomo refused if he is keen to have the people know about the history of the country. I think he felt humiliated to take the post of ceremonial president.”
