Jealousy Mawarire
Nduduzo Tshuma, Political Editor
TROUBLED National People’s Party (NPP) leader Dr Joice Mujuru suffered yet another blow yesterday as the national spokesperson Mr Jealousy Mawarire resigned from the party.
The resignation comes a week after a fist fight between Mr Mawarire and Dr Mujuru’s spokesperson Mr Gift Nyandoro that left the latter with a broken leg.
The fight, that happened outside Bronte Hotel in Harare, was sparked by long-standing differences over NPP’s position regarding the proposed opposition coalition which has seen Mr Tsvangirai warming up to ZimPF, leaving NPP in sixes and sevens.
Mr Mawarire, in his resignation letter, blamed Dr Mujuru for turning a blind eye on what he called Mr Nyandoro’s thuggish behaviour during national executive meetings where he has allegedly threatened fellow members with physical harm or “taking them to the satanic realm.”
“That such behaviour hasn’t been condemned even when it happened in your full view during meetings that you chaired was, to me, bad and when the same Nyandoro carried his thuggish behaviour to the extent of pushing my wife who had come to inquire why he was abrasive towards me when he followed me to Bronte Hotel where I was attending a ZESN-EU workshop took away the little respect I had for him and your office that I thought he represented,” wrote Mr Mawarire.
He said after last week’s altercation, the “melodrama” created by Mr Nyandoro made him realise that, “I wasn’t dealing with a thug but with a dishonest character that I would not love to work with.”
Mr Mawarire said he had made Dr Mujuru aware that Mr Nyandoro, working with two party officials from Harare province, hired “thugs” to trail and harm him.
Mr Mawarire’s resignation follows the split of the Zimbabwe People First party in February that saw Dr Mujuru separating with some founding members and fellow expellees from Zanu-PF including Messrs Rugare Gumbo, Didymus Mutasa, Munacho Mutezo, Dr Margaret Dongo and youth secretary, Mr Lucky Kandemiri after she had expelled them from the party.
After their expulsion, Mr Bhasikiti told the media that Dr Mujuru wanted to replace Mr Mawarire with Mr Nyandoro but was blocked by Messrs Gumbo and Mutasa.
Following the split, other officials like Mr Ray Kaukonde also resigned from the party.
In an attempt to rebrand, Dr Mujuru ditched the ZimPF label and adopted the NPP but the move appears to have failed to stop the implosion in her party.
The developments also come following Dr Mujuru’s disastrous interviews with foreign media outlets including BBC’s Hard Talk which analysts say served to confirm her political ineptitude.