BY EVERSON MUSHAVA
ZANU PF has challenged former President Robert Mugabe to respond to allegations that he was funding opposition leader Nelson Chamisa’s campaign to outfox his rivals ahead of the MDC party’s congress scheduled for May.
Addressing journalists after the party’s politburo meeting on Wednesday, Zanu PF spokesperson Simon Khaya Moyo said the burden was on Mugabe to respond to the allegations.
“I have not heard any response from the former President about that, whether it is true or not true,” Khaya Moyo said.
“It is just rumours going around. But I am saying, if I were the former President, I would have responded to the allegations by now.”
Further asked whether or not Zanu PF had sought clarification from Mugabe over the issue, Khaya Moyo said: “It has nothing to do with Zanu PF, it is something to do with the MDC as we have heard.”
There have been allegations by Chamisa’s backers in the MDC that Zanu PF was bankrolling the opposition party’s secretary-general Douglas Mwonzora’s campaign so he can edge Chamisa, who poses a serious electoral threat to President Emmerson Mnangagwa in the 2023 general elections after having lost narrowly to the Zanu PF leader in the July 30, 2018 elections.
One of Chamisa’s deputies, Morgen Komichi has claimed that Mnangagwa has panned out between $4 and $6 million to support revolt against the youthful leader, who gunned over two million votes and has refused to recognise Mnangagwa’s leadership.
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But Khaya Moyo denied his party’s involvement in MDC affairs, dismissing allegations that Zanu PF was favouring a certain candidate in MDC.
“Our congress is in 2023, that is when we have a candidate and we know the candidate. How can we have a candidate for a party that is not ours? We don’t pick candidate for other parties.”
He added: “They are at each other’s throats, so where do we come in? We hear that some say the constitution says only four positions shall be contested at the congress, and then others say, no, no, no, it is all positions.
“Even their vice-president Elias Mudzuri has said we don’t think this congress will come out well, the party might split. So where do we come in? Where does Zanu PF come in? We are very busy with our problems of fulfilling vision 2030.”
