Zimbabwean former deputy president Joice Mujuru's troubles are reportedly worsening after senior members of her National People's Party (NPP) resigned and joined the country's main opposition, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party.
Several members of the NPP, including the party's president Samuel Sipepa Nkomo, national chairperson Dzikamai Mavhaire and the spokesperson Jeffreyson Chitando, left the party last month citing severed relations with Mujuru.
According to New Zimbabwe.com, in their resignation letters, the former NPP officials said that they were unable to continue working with Mujuru.
Nkomo said he had resigned from the party for personal reasons, while Chitando blamed Mujuru for the party’s dismal performance during the July 30 elections.
Speaking during the welcoming ceremony at the MDC headquarters in Harare over the weekend, Muvhaire said they could have joined the ruling Zanu-PF party but they felt that the MDC was the "party of truth", according Daily News.
A lot of infiltrators
"We believe in the fututre but can you honestly say I am the future at my age? Can you say Mnangagwa is the future? If you tell me Chamisa is the fututre, I will believe you because even by merely looking at his age, you can see the future," Mavhaire was quoted as saying.
Meanwhile, according to the privately owned Standard newspaper, Itai Munyoro, who was also a senior NPP official before he resigned from the party, said that Mujuru was largely to blame for her political "misfortunes".
Munyoro said that the party was infiltrated by Zanu-PF and government agents who wanted to destroy it from within.
"In some cases it was clear that certain people were on a mission and in others we failed to detect it," Munyoro was quoted as saying.
"There were a lot of infiltrators whose mission was to create problems in the party and effectively so, they worked very hard to accomplish that. This is one of the problems that we had."
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Mujuru was among 23 presidential candidates who participated in the July 30 elections, and was only able to walk away with 12 000 votes, Daily News reported.
Mujuru was sacked from the ruling Zanu-PF party by ex-president Robert Mugabe four years ago at the instigation of former first lady Grace Mugabe, who accused her of plotting to topple her husband from power.
Soon after being forced out of Zanu-PF, Mujuru was instrumental in the founding of the Zimbabwe People First party with a number of expelled Zanu-PF heavyweights that included Didymus Mutasa, and Rugare Gumbo.