EXPELLED FORMER VICE PRESIDENT Joice Mujuru has followed Morgan Tsvangirai’s trail by branching out of the ruling party and forming her own party, an insider has cast-all.
Tsvangirai used to be a powerful ZANU PF commissar but in 1999 decided to desert Robert Mugabe and form the MDC party together with a crawl of academics and  activists all disgruntled with ZANU PF’s perversion of the political pool.
Mrs Mujuru’s latest move likely was revealed by her top lieutenant Didymus Mutasa who said the party will bw called ZANU (People First). Mutasa who is popularly known under the nickname, “Gamatox,” said members of the “original and genuine Zanu PF which was formed on August 8, 1963” had decided to form “People First“ after the ruling party was taken over by a bunch of mafikizolos at the December 2014 congress.
Mutasa warned that the proposed new party would rock the ruling party since it had the backing of key figures in the security establishment as well as former Zipra and Zanla commanders.
“We want to have a party, but we are still talking about it. We are with Mai Mujuru, Rugare Gumbo and all those who were removed from the party,” he told a privately-owned radio station.
“It is many of us from different oppositional parties such as Simba Makoni, Dumiso Dabengwa and a lot of others who were no longer supporting Zanu PF.
“Our membership is composed of the original and seasoned politicians, commanders of the Zimbabwe African National Army (Zanla), Zimbabwe People’s Revolutionary Army (Zipra) and Zimbabwe People’s Army (Zipa) forces who are now being marginalised,” he said.
 
Mutasa hinted that many big names of disgruntled former Mugabe loyalists are warming up to the move.
Margaret Dongo, who left Zanu PF in the 1990s to stand as an independent candidate also appeared to warm up to the idea of a new party yesterday.
“A Zanu PF returning to the ideals of the liberation struggle is long overdue. It will attract war veterans, nationalists and all those who were wrongly expelled from the party. The generation that waged the liberation war is still there and should lead the party not these mafikizolos.
“Fortunately, these guys have seen the light and there are a lot of war veterans who have been looking for shelter,” Dongo said.
And despite the public bravado after expelling Mujuru and her allies, it is widely known that the People First movement has rattled the ruling party, amid fears that party hardliners may resort to extreme violence to thwart their opponents.
But Mutasa and team are not deterred.
“We should all converge to save our country from the corrupt and selfish leadership of the illegal 2014 Zanu PF. We will accept as members all Zimbabweans from all walks of life who are determined to work for a new Zimbabwe.
“We envisage a Zimbabwe where every member of society matters. Hence we shall require that in all considerations people must come first. Hence our slogan People First,” he said.
Gumbo said yesterday that the expulsion of Mujuru from the post-congress Zanu PF was a blessing in disguise as it would open the door for “like-minded persons” to work together towards a common objective.
“The expulsion of Mai Mujuru just shows vindictiveness on the part of those who are in the party’s politburo, but they have also played into our hands,” he said cryptically.
 
“Just a money-faction” – Prof Moyo
Commenting on the development ZANU PF spin doctor Jonathan Moyo scoffed at the move.
“Media dreams of a split will come to grief not least because the nefarious pursuits of expelled malcontents in the wilderness cannot be rationally described as a split,” Moyo said.
Dumiso Dabengwa’s 2008 foray into the political wilderness was not a split in Zanu PF nor was Simba Makoni’s Mavambo in the same year which ended up as Magumo in 2013.”
He continued, “it is also notable that the expelled Mujuru-Mutasa-Rugare cabal was widely seen as the money-faction before its long overdue expulsion because money was, as it still is, more important to the threesome than ideology.”