JOHANNESBURG – The EFF in Zimbabwe will not field a presidential candidate but will rally behind “like-minded” Zanu-PF’s Emmerson Mnangagwa on 23 August.
Innocent Ndibali Sibanda, the organisation’s president in Zimbabwe, in an interview with News24, said the decision was foregrounded on Pan-African alliances it shared with Zanu-PF.
“He is the only president who will ensure continuity in land expropriation without compensation, and the protection of the non-negotiable Zimbabwe sovereignty.
“The EFF voted with Zanu-PF at the Pan-African Parliament and brought about the EFF-sponsored rotational principle in the presidency of the Pan-African Parliament.
“Zanu-PF, under President Mnangagwa, has not violated the rights of Africans and this is in line with our borderless Africa and the belief that no African can be a foreigner in Africa,” Sibanda said.
At the Pan-African Parliament last year, EFF South Africa voted for Zimbabwe’s Fortune Charumbira for the presidency.
But the stance taken by EFF Zimbabwe was somewhat different from the SA party’s standpoint.
The SA leader, Julius Malema, in May, attacked Mnangagwa in a tweet for jailing opposition leaders.
“Sending an activist to four years’ imprisonment for simply holding different political views is pathetic,” he tweeted.
Nomination Court
The Nomination Court will convene on Wednesday – and, to stand for the presidency, there’s a R400 000 fee to be lodged at the high court, for Parliamentarians it’s R20 000 at provincial courts, and those eyeing senate seats will have to pay R4 000.
The fees were contested last week, with the Constitutional Court directing Parliament to review the fees.
Zanu-PF enjoyed more than a two-thirds majority – and the fees were not changed.
On Monday, opposition political parties filed an urgent court application calling for the fees to be reduced.
High Court Judge Justice Munamato Mutevedzi ruled the application seeking an urgent determination of the challenge was not urgent, so the matter should be set down for hearing on a normal and ordinary court’s roll.
During the 2018 general elections, there were 23 presidential candidates.
The steep fees could serve as a deterrent to many aspirants. – News24
