Trouble could be brewing up in the Elton Mangoma led Coalition Of Democrats (CODE) after one of the leading principals and ZimFirst leader, Maxwell Shumba pulled out citing incompetence and lack of transparency in the movement.
In a strong worded press release earlier this week, Shumba accused Mangoma of interfering in internal politics of partner members to consolidate his bid to represent CODE in this year’s Presidential elections.
“I officially announce that our party is pulling out of CODE and put our main focus in rebuilding the party for the betterment of Zimbabwe. CODE is hopeless and directionless, and we cannot be held ransom to stay in CODE at the expense of serving the people’s interests.
“ZimFirst is a people first oriented party and is pushing towards transforming the fallen Zimbabwean economy. It’s callous for Mangoma to instigate rebellion in our party to consolidate his presidential candidacy. ZimFirst is intact and will not be shaken by such moves. In that respect, as the Presidential candidate for ZimFirst,” said Shumba.
ZimFirst insiders told 263Chat that prior to Shumba’s decision to pull out of CODE, a meeting had been convened in Highfields to expel him from the party on the grounds that he was not a registered voter.
Contacted for comment, ZimFirst spokesperson, Pamela Nyabadza said although Shumba had not registered as yet, he was coming back to Zimbabwe to do so as the registration process had not ended.
“We have pulled out of CODE and we will be doing it all alone. We are not joining any alliance as we believe in our president. There have been allegations that he is not a registered voter, yes that is true but he is coming in this week to do so,” said Nyabadza.
CODE President, Mangoma , however, dismissed being involved in ZimFirst’s intra-party politics while professing ignorance over Shumba’s move to quit CODE.
“I cannot comment on issues involving another party and as far as I am aware, there are processes that are involved in one quitting the CODE and those processes have not been followed.
“There is also no way that I have tried to prop Mr Lupemba to take over ZimFirst because I have no mandate whatsoever in running that party. So if there are issues that need to be addressed, that party can make their own choices and i cannot be seen to be meddling in their affairs,” said Mangoma.
He however said CODE is moving forward regardless of the setbacks and are in the process of selecting candidates for the 2018 elections.
CODE was initially made up of eight parties but one of the principles, Tendai Biti defected to another coalition of opposition parties, the MDC Alliance.
