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Zanu-PF upheavals 'non-event'
03/03/2008 11:52 - (SA)
Harare - The chairperson of Zimbabwe's ruling party under President Robert Mugabe says upheavals in Zanu-PF marked by the defection of senior politicians are a "non-event", say reports.
John Nkomo's comments came after Dumiso Dabengwa, a Zanu-PF politburo member and veteran nationalist, announced that he would back ex-finance minister Simba Makoni's bid for the presidency on March 29.
Other key former Zanu-PF personalities who had joined Makoni, included one-time cabinet minister Edgar Tekere, former parliamentary speaker Cyril Ndebele and former education minister Fay Chung.
"There is nothing alarming about the existence of pro-Makoni rebels within the party as all previous opposition formations have come out of the ruling party," the radio quoted Nkomo as saying.
Makoni 'a political prostitute'
Makoni, also a longstanding member of Mugabe's politburo, made the shock announcement in February that he would challenge the 84-year- old leader's 28-year old hold on power.
Makoni was immediately expelled from Zanu-PF. An angry Mugabe, who launched his own election campaign on Friday, labelled Makoni an opportunist and a "political prostitute".
In comments to reporters in Bulawayo, Nkomo said Zanu-PF rebels were "sell-outs". But, he said, their existence showed there was democracy in Zimbabwe and the ruling party, said the radio report.
For the first time in Zimbabwe's history, the March 29 polls would see Zimbabweans voting for parliamentarians, local councillors and a president in one day.
Analysts predicted that there would be widespread confusion - there were nearly 1 000 candidates for the upper and lower houses of parliament alone.
Makoni would also be standing against main opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai of the larger of two factions of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), who lost to Mugabe by less than 500 000 votes in the last polls.
Sapa-dpa
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