Staff Reporter | Zimbabwe People First leader, Joice Mujuru, is set to rush to Matabeleland, Bulawayo in particular, soon after the Bikita West by-election in a bid to rescue her disintegrating party in the region.

Impeccable sources within the party revealed to ZimEye.com that there are serious rifts within the party in the region set to see mass resignations of members and some prominent persons if nothing is done to rescue the situation.

The sources further claim that the root of the problem is the exclusion of Matabeleland personnel from the party’s top leadership and the predominantly former ZANU PF leadership in the party structures.

The situation is said to have been worsened by the question of who will be Mujuru’s Vice President, an issue which has created bitter factionalism.

Mujuru has positioned former PDP Vice President Samuel Sipepa Nkomo to be her deputy from the region without consulting the provinces who are preferring a younger person for the position.

Mujuru has since been summoned by the region to attend to the issues with a deadline set for the 31st of January after which if she fails to attend to the concerns of the region “the party is bound to collapse,” the sources claimed.

Matabeleland region party members are reported to have been against the party’s constitution prescribing two Vice Presidents with the region demanding for one Vice President who must come from the region if the President is from the northern regions. Mujuru is said to have declined the submission insisting on two vice Presidents following her former boss Robert Mugabe’s model.

According to the sources the party is failing to make meaningful in roads into the region because of the predominant former ZANU PF leadership which members claim makes people believe the party is a reincarnation of ZANU PF, an issue which Mujuru must address.

The members also accuse Mujuru of being undemocratic and imposing leaders on the people in the region while allowing Mashonaland regions to choose their own leaders.

In recent weeks the party dismissed provincial chairpersons from Matabeleland North and Matabeleland South and several members from the Bulawayo province are reported to be in the firing line.

Comment could not be obtained from the party information officer Jealous Mawarire whose phone was not reachable.