Expelled ZAPU senior party members have hit out at the party’s leader, Sibangilizwe Nkomo, accusing him of being obsessed with power to the point of removing anyone who opposes him.
Dr Strike Mkandla, Matthew Sibanda, Ernest Ndlovu, Mildred Mkandla, and Akim Nkala were expelled from the party on Saturday on the grounds that they had “individually and collectively chosen a path designed to harm ZAPU in collaboration with those invested in this objective for many years now.”
Dr Mkandla is the former Secretary-General of the party, Mildred is the former Secretary for Education and Training, Sibanda is the former Matabeleland South Provincial Chairperson while Ndlovu was his provincial secretary and Nkala was in the National Executive Council (NEC).
They claim Nkomo specifically targeted them for highlighting that he was not qualified to be party president based on a resolution passed by the National People’s Council (NPC), ZAPU’s highest policy-making body in between congresses held every five years.
Dr Mkandla told CITE they have been “manhandled” by the leadership, which has accused them of not respecting them.
“The president has said a lot of things indirectly but his (ZAPU) spokesperson Msongelwa Ndlovu has attacked me by name and I think I am at liberty now to respond,” he said.
Dr Mkandla said the spokesperson alleged he was part of Front for the Liberation of Zimbabwe (FROLOZI) a ‘controversial’ breakaway faction of both ZAPU and Zanu that occurred during the liberation struggle.
“Ndlovu is all over the place speaking things he doesn’t know historically and very badly. He says some of us were in FROLIZI in 1970/71. That is not the case. FROLIZI was set up at the end of 1971 when some of us were already in detention,” he said.
“I have heard even Nkomo referring to us as the Walter Mthimkhulu group, that is total ignorance there is no such thing. Mthimkhulu was a spokesperson of the March 11 movement at the Mboroma Conference of 1971, a movement commanded by Philimon Mabuza who ended up in ZAPU.”
Ndlovu and Nkomo, according to Dr Mkandla, should “quench their ignorance by reading.”
He also stated that Nkomo’s constant boasting about his position at ZAPU was unseemly.
“Nkomo is on and on about his powers. That’s very arbitrary and uncalled for. We don’t know anyone who did that, not even Joshua Nkomo or Dumiso Dabengwa had the powers that he is talking about. Even if they are there, they are constitutional, not personal powers,” said Dr Mkandla.
“We have structures in which we exercise those powers and that is through NEC or NPC. Nkomo must wait for congress to get new mandates to change anything but he’s on and on about powers vested in him, to the extent that he can take arbitrary personal decisions.
“Decisions are constitutional to make sure there is absence of arbitrariness, not to heap any powers to anybody whether SG, president or national chairperson. These are very fictitious powers, otherwise, the last people to do such things was Mugabe and maybe to some degree Tsvangirai. In ZAPU we never had such arbitrariness.”
Dr Mkandla stated Dabengwa never acted arbitrarily.
“We always had meetings and Dabengwa spoke to other people. He even presided over meetings of 16 political parties, which were not made public. What was important about Dabengwa is he actually was a very collective man in his approach,” said the former SG.
He added there were complaints that they were running parallel structures to challenge the so-called official structures.
“Because I am in Mpopoma and Sibanda is from Mangwe, they think that it is full of people who oppose them,” he said.
Mildred concurred that on principle, Nkomo was unqualified to run for the party presidency.
According to the former NEC member, Nkomo produced cards indicating he had been a member for more than five years, but the party cards he produced were for 2010.
“Party cards change every two years, which should mean his card was valid from 2010 to 2011. He didn’t have any other party card until 2019 to 2020,” she said.
Mkandla said on June 12, 2021, Nkomo was selected as a presidential candidate although his election was marred by irregularities.
“There were 105 registered people at that conference but when results came Nkomo had 121votes,” she said.
“The matter went back to the Council of Elders, and the Matabeleland South province said ‘We want Sibangilizwe only and no one else.’
This prompted them to go to court before the ZAPU congress.
“We wanted to stop Nkomo from entering the race, not because we hated him but because he came in irregularly against resolutions of the NPC,” Mkandla said.
But the matter was withdrawn on a technicality.
“It doesn’t matter how well Nkomo is doing, we don’t hate him. If the NPC wants him to stay they should tell us why they want him to hang on when they know he doesn’t qualify,” Mkandla said.
One ZAPU youth chair for Ward 13, Thulani Libanzi Khanye, weighed in that “ZAPU doesn’t belong to one person but to everyone.”
“Nkomo stays here in Pelandaba but hasn’t come down to people. How will people vote for him when they don’t know him? He must pull his socks. People know his father not him!”
