Terry Moyo | National People’s Party leader Joice Mujuru seems to be following in the footsteps of her mentor President Robert Mugabe, by the way she has allowed voter intimidation and violence to characterise the just ended party elections.
Members of the NPP who were involved in the weekend elections claim that they were heavily threatened by some senior party members against voting for certain candidates.
The members who spoke to ZimEye.com specifically exposed elected National Chairman Dzikamai Mavhaire and a Munyaradzi Banda from Harare as the chief culprits in forcing them to vote against certain candidates.
According to the sources Mavhaire and Banda visited and phoned members in most of Mashonaland provinces and warned members against voting particularly for Mavhaire’s challenger Bekezela Maduma and Vice President candidate Cuthbert Ncube from Matabeleland on tribal lines. The sources claim that Mavhaire and Banda went further to engage provincial chairpersons from all the country’s provinces except Matabeleland South and Bulawayo ordering them to make sure that the Matabeleland duo of Ncube who was standing for Vice Presidency against Mavhaire’s faithful Samuel Sipepa Nkomo and Maduma were not voted for whatever it took.
The sources claim to have attended a meeting in Harare where the Provincial Chairpersons and other provincial leaders were addressed by Mavhaire and Banda, where the character assassination of Maduma and Ncube was carried out, with the duo being accused of being CIO agents planted in the party by Didymus Mutasa and Rugare Gumbo to destabilise the party.
In the meeting Mavhaire is reported to have told the members that the party has been investigating Maduma for a while on allegations of tribalism for suspected links with Mthwakazi cessation agents in Matabeleland and is due to be dismissed from the party as soon as a full fledged National Executive Committee and disciplinary committee is set up.
According to the sources, Mavhaire and Banda warned provincial chairpersons in the meeting they risked being sidelined if their provinces by any chance manage to vote for any of the two Matabeleland leaders. According to the sources, the provincial leaders were warned against entertaining in their provinces the Cuthbert Ncube led campaign team which included Maduma, First Vice President candidate Elliot Kasu, Secretary General candidate Petronella Musarurwa and Treasurer General candidate Wilbert Mubaiwa.
The sources further claim that in Harare in their pursuit to hear the other side of the campaigns they ended up having midnight meetings with the Ncube team in hiding to avoid being detected by Banda who they described as a warlord who was capable of doing anything to them if he would pick it up that they had met the Ncube team.