By Staff Reporter SOUTH Africa-based politician Herbert Chamuka has formed a new party after breaking ranks with his colleagues in the Ideas Party of Democracy (IPD) over ideological issues.
The new party is known as the People’s Unity Party (PUP).
The party has since notified the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) of its existence and willingness to participate in next year’s general elections.
“The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission acknowledges receipt of your party profile documents, the contents of which have been noted. Your organisation as been included on ZEC’s stakeholder data base and mailing list for notification when appropriate meetings that require your input arise,” ZEC said in response to the party’ correspondence dated June 8, 2022.
Speaking from his South Africa base, Chamuka confirmed the development saying IPD was disbanded following disagreements over leadership and positional issues.
“Our new party is known as the People’s Unity First. What happened is that we had disagreements as leaders over ideological issues, especially I found that people who were leading the party in Zimbabwe were not doing any work. They only wanted to work and hold meetings when I am in Zimbabwe. I realised this was not going to work,” Chamuka said.
“We realised that if we continue on this path, we would never achieve our goal as a party, which is to remove Zanu PF from power next year. I think with our new party, we will be able to proceed,” he said.
“I formed this party on May 5 after realising we need to work together as a party. What we denied is to be used by Zanu PF in a fake unity. We saw how Zanu PF swallowed the ZAPU in 1987 and the MDC in 2008,” he added.
“We are also calling on all opposition parties to unite and force Zanu PF into a coalition government which will govern for three years in preparation for elections. We have since despatched out letters of request in this respect.”