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Nduduzo Tshuma, Political Editor   
THE grouping of disgruntled Zanu-PF expellees under the banner of Zimbabwe People First has started collapsing in spectacular fashion with moves by its leader Dr Joice Mujuru to fire seven top seven members of her executive.

At a press conference on Wednesday, Dr Mujuru announced the expulsion of Messrs Didymus Mutasa, Rugare Gumbo, Kudakwashe Bhasikiti, Munacho Mutezo, Claudius Makova, Lucky Kandemiri and Ms Margaret Dongo.

She accused them of plotting a “coup d’état” against her and being Zanu-PF infiltrators bent on destabilising the party.

Messrs Mutasa, Gumbo, Mutezo and Bhasikiti were part of a cabal linked to Dr Mujuru accused of plotting to unseat President Mugabe leading to their expulsion from Zanu-PF in 2014.

They went on to form ZimPF and put Dr Mujuru at the helm.

Adding to the drama, the seven, hours after their expulsion, organised their own press conference, announcing that Dr Mujuru had no authority to sack them. They also expressed lack of confidence in her leadership.

Perhaps, Mr Gumbo’s statement in reaction to their expulsion tells the extent of their fall out with Dr Mujuru.

“She has declared war on us. The die has been cast. How can you have confidence in someone who expels you – and expelling you without any credible reasons? Yes, we have lost confidence in her (and) I do not think she is the right leader. We no longer recognise her as our leader.

“We will sit down as leadership of ZimPF, look into the issue, look into the challenges that the party is facing. We will do this as quickly as possible. I can assure you, we will do the best we can to find someone and if we can find good guys, young, competent guys or women to do this kind of thing, well and good. All we will do is to support them and try to direct them in the best way we can.”

What the two sides are not telling us, however, is that there was a meeting recently at Dr Mujuru’s house where Mr Mutasa’s grouping expressed reservations in entering a coalition with MDC-T leader Mr Morgan Tsvangirai ahead of the 2018 elections.

So fierce were the disagreements, we are told, that the meeting degenerated into a trade of insults.

The two sides also did not reveal to us that Dr Mujuru’s move was a counter to the planned vote of no confidence against her by the Mutasa group initially meant for Tuesday but the provincial coordinators with whom they wanted to make the announcement ditched them.

Names have been thrown around of possible candidates preferred by the Mutasa grouping to replace Dr Mujuru at the helm of the party, prominent among them being Mr Ray Kaukonde who has since distanced himself from the scheme.

What is apparent, however, which ever side prevails at the end of the day is that ZimPF has always been a grouping former Zanu-PF members expelled from the ruling party over allegations of plotting to unseat President Mugabe. Their rallying point was disgruntlement over their unceremonious exit from the liberation movement, full stop.

The irony is also not lost in that Dr Mujuru is sacking her co-conspirators in Zanu-PF in a plot to dethrone President Mugabe, for allegedly plotting a coup against her. And Mr Mutasa’s admission that they were sacked from the ruling party because of Dr Mujuru all but confirms their putschist make-up and that they took their coup plotting character to their new organisation.

Interestingly Dr Mujuru, after her expulsion from the ruling party, protested claiming there was no due process followed to reach the decision to sack her.

However, now the same Dr Mujuru has expelled members through “executive authority.”

The collapse of ZimPF was always inevitable because disgruntlement over being chucked out of an organisation and not over any valid ideology has never been a solid foundation or any for that matter to build a movement let alone to take on the revolutionary Zanu- PF party.

In the event that Dr Mujuru succeeds in dumping the seven, which seems likely from the support she has received from the provinces, with Matabeleland South being the first to endorse her moves, questions now rise on her fate in the politics of the country.

Our view is that Dr Mujuru’s political fate is the same as that of the seven top officials she has ditched.

She is now left with serial political bed-hoppers and chancers who have left one party for another not because of any serious ideological convictions but in pursuit of nothing but positions of influence in those parties.

Not far from now, the serial political flip-floppers will, and true to their reputation, turn on Dr Mujuru and start another cycle of chaos leading to the eventual fragmentation of the party.

On the desperation to form a coalition against Zanu- PF, it is clear that all opposition parties are either self- mutilating or on the verge of it so that they could agree on the terms of the alliance forming.

In the MDC-T, a split is looming as Mr Tsvangirai and his deputy Ms Thokozani Khupe are at odds over the coalition, with Ms Khupe arguing that there is no need to form alliances in Matabeleland which she considers her source of influence.

On a broader level of the so-called grand coalition, the politics of personalities also come into play. Not of any ideology beyond the “Mugabe must go” mantra, the coalition is already doomed before the finer details of the union are agreed on.

This paper has always maintained that all that the Zanu-PF government needs ahead of 2018 is to continue serving the people and the implementation of pro-people policies.

At party level, Zanu-PF cadres are advised to heed calls by President Mugabe of discipline and unity among party structures to ensure that the 2018 polls become a mere formality.

The opposition is in shambles and there is no possibility of them first mending within their respective structures then forming a coalition to shake Zanu-PF.