ZAPU has rejected claims made by Sengezo Tshabangu, that he was in talks with their party leader, Sibangilizwe Nkomo to collaborate with Zanu PF and form a government of national unity (GNU).
Tshabangu was interviewed by a foreign-based media house early this week where he claimed he was engaging the ZAPU leader over talks with Zanu PF as a means to ‘complete’ the work started by the late nationalist Joshua Nkomo to establish a GNU.
The late nationalist- Nkomo- was the founder of ZAPU and also the father to the current party leader.
However, ZAPU has slammed Tshabangu’s claims as lies.
“ZAPU has noted with utter disgust the glaring lies attributed to self-proclaimed Secretary General of the fractured Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC), one Sengezo Tshabangu,” said
ZAPU National Spokesperson, Richard Gandari, retorted: “You lied to the world Mr Tshabangu!”
Gandari said in the interview aired on May 7, 2024, Tshabangu claimed he had spoken to Nkomo and his sister Thandiwe Nkomo ostensibly to complete the unfinished business of establishing a GNU with Zanu PF.
“Nothing could be further from the truth. The truth of the matter is that our President, Cde Sibangilizwe Nkomo, casually met Mr Tshabangu by chance, during Chief Dakamela’s traditional function in Nkayi on 7 April 2024,” said the ZAPU spokesperson.
The ZAPU spokesperson said Nkomo and Tshabangu’s meeting involved a “mere handshake and photo opportunity” as per Tshabangu’s request.
“Out of civil courtesy and ubuntu, President Nkomo obliged and spent at most a couple of minutes interacting with Mr Tshabangu. Apart from cordial greetings and casual pleasantries, nothing of political substance was ever discussed,” Gandari said.
Gandari added that for the record it was their party’s president’s first time meeting the “infamous Mr Tshabangu in person.”
“Today, we find ourselves with the unenviable task of defending our good name from Mr Tshabangu’s tattered brand,” said the ZAPU spokesperson.
“Association with his acerbic name has badly affected the dead and the living in equal measure. He is a radioactive entity, unfortunately, hard to avoid during a public function.”
Tshabangu is famed for recalling several elected representatives from Parliament and councils across the country after last year’s national elections, as well as engaging in multiple legal battles with former CCC leader Nelson Chamisa and the recalled officials.
He now sits in the Senate having filled one of the proportional representation vacancies in the upper house of Parliament.
The ZAPU spokesperson claimed Tshabangu was a “drowning man, desperate to clutch at any straws for personal survival and political relevance.”
“While we are not medically privy to the state of his mental faculties, it would be naïve to consider him stable, unless his mischief knows no bounds,” Gandari said.
He added that Tshbangu’s claims amount to misinformation with the danger of misleading the public into believing that the ZAPU leader is part of Zanu PF.
