Founding members of the Joice Mujuru led Zimbabwe People First party Rugare Gumbo and Didymus Mutasa attended the Mujuru rally on Saturday in Harare just to show face at the gathering which they never agreed to endorse ZimEye.com can confirm.
Reliable sources in the party indicated that the two veteran politicians were literally begged by other party heavy-weights to attend the rally to give a false picture that all was well in the beleaguered party.
“We can confirm to you that Mutasa and Gumbo only attended the rally in bodies but not in spirit. Their spirits are now completely out of the party which they feel Mujuru is not leading as designed by them at the formation,” said the sources.
The sources indicated that the party resolved to beg the two elders to attend the rally after they did not attend the first public rally of the party in Bulawayo last week without giving reason but as a strong sign of discontent on Mujuru.
Following their last minute no-show at the Bulawayo rally, the media quickly revealed the differences that existed between Mujuru and the two founding members who have been relegated to the unfashionable “party elders” portfolio.
It is believed Gumbo and Mutasa’s original plan in the formation of the party was to front Mujuru as the party interim leader before having Mutasa take over at the official launch of the party at a later stage. Mujuru has however gained massive support in the party that has led to members pushing Mutasa out of the picture.
In Saturday’s rally, Mutasa and Gumbo arrived separately from Mujuru while they were expected to arrive together with Mujuru to show unity and solidarity after last week’s media headlines.
When Mujuru finally arrived, a section of the party supporters loyal to Mutasa emerged from within the crowd carrying placards denouncing Mujuru of her attempts to sideline the two. One of the placards read “NO ELDERS NO PARTY,” while another read “Don’t hijack the party from the elders.”
The placards were quickly brought down by members of the Mujuru security.
When the two were invited to address the gathering, they took to the stage for less than two minutes each with Gumbo making little greetings to the crowd. Mutasa who was asked to introduce Mujuru and ask her to address the crowd, only stood up to say one sentence, “president please address the people,” before turning away and sitting down.
Relations between Mujuru and Mutasa are said to be so strained that Mutasa is considering forming a splitter party according to party insiders.