Former ZAPU Secretary-General (SG), Strike Mkandla, has accused the party’s Council of Elders of failing to act on his expulsion from the party and has demanded to know why he was expelled.
Addressing a media briefing on Friday, Mkandla said ZAPU should be preparing for the 2023 general elections instead of going after members considered a threat to the party president, Sibangilizwe Nkomo. Mkandla said:
I have not communicated to anyone what I think about them even about the things they do and the manner in which they do them.
When everyone is trying to think of the 2023 elections, these guys seem to be preoccupied with pointing the gun at their feet.
How do you start attacking your own members before you even say what your strategy is in terms of national procedure barely six months before national elections?
Instead of harnessing all of your forces, they are attacking some people who are there at their disposal. Well, I don’t think I will be at the disposal of anybody now after all this.
He accused the Council of Elders of dereliction of duty for allegedly failing to inform him about the reasons for his expulsion from the party. Said Mkandla:
The Council of Elders didn’t say anything for or against me and they didn’t institute anything. This is a dereliction of duty by the Council of Elders leadership.
It’s very serious and it’s unprecedented in ZAPU that people can be charged and expelled and they don’t say anything.
It can be something if they said ‘we will not tell you the reasons but we sat down and we have a dossier somewhere but we are not publicising.’ As far as I know, they probably haven’t got reasons.
Mkandla was expelled from ZAPU alongside Matthew Sibanda (Matabeleland South Provincial Chairperson), Ernest Ndlovu (provincial secretary), Mildred Mkandla (Secretary for Education and Training), and Akim Nkala (National Executive Council member). | CITE