Sipepa Nkomo Under Fire from Zapu

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By SARAH NCUBE

Published: October 7, 2009

ZIMBABWE – BULAWYO – The newly revived Zimbabwe African People’s Union (Zapu) is breathing fire over MDC ‘s Minister of Water Resources and Development’s utterances that the party died with Joshua Nkomo.

The party’s director of communications and marketing a former Chronicle journalist who rose to prominence as News Editor during Professor Jonathan Moyo’s tenure as Mugabe’s (Mis) Information minister issue out a press statement that The Zimbabwe Telegraph is in possession of and it reads:

“The attack on our party, Zapu by MDC-T’s Mr Samuel Sipepa Nkomo, in the Chronicle issue of Tuesday October 6 2009 comes as a no surprise to Zapu because attacking Zapu has become an industry for political opportunists who have nothing to offer and are intimidated by the revival of Zapu.

Zapu wants to bring to Sipepa-Nkomo and other narrow-minded politicians’ attention that democracy is about plurality of views and political parties. It is sad that there are people who want to monopolise politics and want to give the impression that only they should be allowed to challenge Zanu-PF for power.

For the record, the people of Zimbabwe in general, and the people of Matabeleland that Sipepa-Nkomo mentioned in particular, have risked their lives and limbs giving support to Sipepa-Nkomo’s party, which has however failed to translate electoral advantage into political power. That is precisely the reason why we have revived Zapu, because we believe our party has the political muscle, grassroots support, revolutionary attributes and tried and tested leadership to dislodge Zanu-PF from power, which we are confident Zapu will do come election time.

On the contrary, Sipepa’s MDC-T neither has capable leadership, revolutionary attributes, nor well-rooted support on the ground. The fact that a vacuum in opposition politics has allowed the MDC-T to get this far should not fool anyone that they are a serious national political party. They are not and Zapu is. The MDC-T is a political accident created by non-Zimbabweans and fronted locally by plain folks whose narrow-mindedness wants to take us back to the political bickering and violence we witnessed in the past decade. A two-party system lives people with no option and divided into “for us or against us”, and expose them to violence and intimidation. Any serious thinking person would welcome the arrival of a true political giant like Zapu to add a third force and thereby extinguish political tensions caused by the two-party system.

Contrary to Sipepa-Nkomo’s claims, Zapu has no money, has no furniture, has no office equipment and no vehicles, which the MDC-T has all this in abundance but has failed dismally to remove Zanu-PF from power. The fact that our party has achieved political impact of the magnitude displayed by the fear in our opponents even without resources for now speaks volumes of what Zapu is capable of doing. If there is a party that has money it is the MDC-T which sadly is using it negatively to finance doomed regime change projects such as the so-called parallel government.

Mr Sipepa-Nkomo needs to be reminded that an anti-Mugabe or anti-Zanu-PF vote in Matabeleland or anywhere else is not necessarily a pro-Tsvangirai vote. A multi-party election like the one we are headed to will prove that. It is ironic that such comments come from Mr Sipepa-Nkomo, who became a minister through the backdoor after he and other MDC-T MPs from Matabeleland blackmailed Tsvangirai to include them in his cabinet. That Mr Sipepa-Nkomo himself was eventually appointed cabinet minister does not mean the MDC-T leadership has changed its view about Ndebeles, as evidenced by Sekai Holland’s recent comments about King Mzilikazi and the Ndebeles, and the subsequent indifferent attitude towards her comment by Mr Tsvangirai and the rest of the MDC-T leadership.

Mr Sipepa-Nkomo needs to read a copy of an internal MDC 2005 commission of inquiry report which established that the split of the party in 2005 was caused by tribalism, ostensibly the fear that “Ndebeles would takeover the party” if Tsvangirai was convicted of his then treason trial. In case Mr Sipepa has not seen the report, we can furnish him with a copy. The MDC-T no longer deserves the support of the people of Zimbabwe, and those of Matabeleland in particular Mr Sipepa-Nkomo.

On his comments that Zapu died with the late Vice President Nkomo, Mr Sipepa-Nkomo is not being sincere because he knows Zapu is alive and will live forever. If there is any party that smells death it is his MDC-T, which failed countless times to win an election against a governing party presiding over an economy with the highest inflation in history. In any case, Dr Nkomo was not Zapu and Zapu was not Dr Nkomo. It is as simple as that.
The anti-Zapu revival crusade has run out of ideas and is sounding illogical and monotonous. They say Dr Nkomo died with Zapu, and then say Zapu is in Zanu-PF. Which is which? Mr Sipepa-Nkomo’s comments are self-contradictory, typical of people who have nothing to say. In any case, Zapu is not an item or company and has no “owner”. We know more about Mr Sipepa-Nkomo and he must stop telling lies about Zapu or else be prepared to be embarrassed.

Finally, Zapu, the founder and authentic liberation movement of Zimbabwe, does not deserve to be attacked by a notorious wife-snatcher and classical political opportunist of Mr Sipepa-Nkomo’s caliber,” said Moyo in his press statement.

Sources in the know told the Zimbabwe Telegraph that there is a scandal about to be unearth about Sipepa and an out of wedlock child based in the United Kingdom. Until the expose Sipepa is said to have kept the child issue a secret for the past 30 years. The Zimbabwe Telegraph will keep you posted.