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Zunde sacks leader

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AN opposition party, whose leadership includes self-exiled former High Court judge, Justice Benjamin Paradza, has forced out its interim leader, Farai Mbira on allegations of abusing his office and unilateral decision-making.

AN opposition party, whose leadership includes self-exiled former High Court judge, Justice Benjamin Paradza, has forced out its interim leader, Farai Mbira on allegations of abusing his office and unilateral decision-making.

BY RICHARD CHIDZA

Farai Mbira
Farai Mbira

The party, whose leadership is mainly domiciled outside the country, said Mbira will no longer be allowed to speak on its behalf.

“Zunde is a team effort. We are about the politics of ideas and values and we have no time for the politics of personalities. Sports coaches are fond of the aphorism that there is no ‘I’ in ‘team’ — there is certainly no ‘I’ in ‘Zunde’. We have no time for a self-promoting leader,” a statement, signed by Mbira’s deputy, Paradza and two other officials, said while expressing gratitude for the work the outgoing leader had done.

While it remained unclear why Mbira had been axed, the tone of the letter seemed to reveal some undercurrents of anger.

The statement said Mbira had shown a streak of autocratic leadership that was too familiar in Zimbabwe.

“Unfortunately, Farai Mbira has demonstrated that he has his own agenda and he has been using his position in Zunde to pursue it, unilaterally making executive decisions without first consulting the Zunde team. Zimbabwe has seen too much of that style of leadership and Zunde will never accept it,” the statement read.

“His (Mbira)’s appointment as interim president of Zunde has been withdrawn with immediate effect and he is no longer authorised to speak or act for Zunde. We thank him for his past contributions and wish him well as he goes off in his own direction to pursue his own goals.”

The statement said Zunde remained committed to creating “a democratic, peaceful and prosperous Zimbabwe based on equal opportunity, involvement and participation for all our people regardless of race, colour, creed, political, religious or other orientation”, among other principles.

Zunde is among a group of small parties that recently signed a coalition pact snubbed by bigger opposition parties. But Mbira yesterday insisted he was still in charge of the party.

“We are advising the public of a false statement by Moses Chamboko from Australia that Zunde has kicked out its interim president,” he said.

“This is a futile exercise by three internet-based activists. Zunde is in Harare and it’s not an internet party. We had our Zunde national executive (meeting) on June 17, which endorsed my leadership team. Three people cannot reverse a national decision. We are issuing an official statement tomorrow morning (today).”