PRESS STATEMENT:Zimbabwe People First UK & Europe Chapter Statement on the Dismissal of Elders Rugare Gumbo and Didymus Mutasa and others.
Date: 8th February 2017
We the people of the Zimbabwe People First UK Chapter would like express our support for the interim leadership for the decision to axe those who are stalling the progress and disassociating themselves with the will of the people of Zimbabwe.
We cannot allow people without interest of what we stand for as a people and for the general populace to take centre stage as we enter into a critical stretch in our history as a nation. We have a lot of mobilisation work to do and grassroots to build and maintain than positional bouts. We have our party to protect from subversives and myopic chums who are only thinking about oneself more than putting People First.
The party will benefit from having injection of new young fresh minds with a desire to build a new Zimbabwe, we shall continue to build and implement our policies for a better Zimbabwe.
All organisations at formative stages face challenges to do with spheres of influence this is normal and acceptable as long as those spheres of influence work towards a common goal of the organisation. It becomes untenable if those spheres of influence undermine the common goals of the party and subvert its structural hierarchy it becomes necessary to purge such elements for the integrity of the party and its progress.
Sadly it’s where ZimPF as a party found itself in since last at Stanley Square inaugural rally where our founding fathers went missing only to show up at Harare having seen a great impact by party leader Dr Mujuru! The desire to make Dr Mujuru a fall guy or make her a puppet has seen internal dialogue fail and a continued undermining of her authority. This became so vivid in view of the way the Bikita by election was unstructurally done and same with upcoming Mwenezi and also a local council bye-election. The inability to let go and allow the party to grow without their influence has seen them run a parallel hierarchical influence peddling undermining the image of the party at home and abroad.
We in the UK not only applaud Dr Mujuru for standing up to their gerontocracy tendencies and stand firmly with her as the part interim leader! We give her our unequivocal support as she builds a truly inclusive party that is not a mirror image of ZanuPF or its expendables. We expect they will be after effects and attempts at counter measures by the ZanuPF die hard elements who are opposed to a grand coalition. We will however as a party ride that storm no matter how long it will take.
PEOPLE FIRST MUST MEAN EXACTLY THAT AND DR MUJURU MUST HAVE CARTE BLANCHE TO NEGOTIATE COALITION WITH OTHER DEMOCRATIC FORCES AND ZIMPF WORK WITHIN NERA AND BE BOUND BY ITS RESOLUTIONS TO ENSURE A LEVEL PLAYING FIELD!
Let us rebuild Zimbabwe in peace, with like minded organs, we have a big battle against us, and united we stand, we need to be reflect what we stand for, and those who do not believe in unity of purpose, change will pass you by. Any person against a coalition of like minded organs deserves no part in the reBUILDing of Zimbabwe. Let the will of the people prevail.
We say no to gerontocracy.
Lets all reBUILD Zimbabwe brick by Brick
Interim Chairperson
Mr. Gilbert Navonika
By order of UK & Europe Interim Committee