Mujuru under pressure to join Chamisa

Published: 23 April 2018

OPPOSITION National People's Party (NPP) leader, Joice Mujuru is reportedly under pressure from most of her supporters, who want her to ditch the People's Rainbow Coalition (PRC) and join hands with the Nelson Chamisa-led MDC Alliance, which they contend stands a better chance of winning this year's elections against Zanu-PF.

Highly-placed sources in the NPP said Mujuru had resorted to holding smaller rallies because of lack of resources as pressure mounts for her to join hands with Chamisa.

"The PRC is not something that has given us any momentum ahead of the polls. We have people in that coalition, who claim to be a party but they are not even followed by their own families and this has affected morale in the party. We believe that there can be movement if we join hands with Chamisa," a member of the party's Masvingo provincial executive said.

This comes as Mujuru's entire youth executive led by Lloyd Masiya recently dumped her over the PRC issue.

Contacted for comment, NPP spokesperson, Jefferson Chitando, said Mujuru was not under pressure, but remained open for strategic alliances with all democratic forces.

"We have a resolution by our highest decision-making body to enter into alliances. We have always said the more the stronger and for one to say there is internal pressure, it's not true," Chitando said.

He said NPP was ready to work with Chamisa and his arch-rival Thokozani Khupe to dislodge Zanu-PF from power.

"We are ready to work with Chamisa as a united front against Zanu-PF, which is responsible for this poverty and suffering among our people. We are also ready to join hands with Khupe, they are not our enemies - the enemy is Zanu-PF," he said.
- newsday