adminco-chairperson Cde Nicholas Goche called for the de-linking of ZI and Jomic.
“The Jomic secretariat should fully control and run Jomic programmes under the direction of the full Jomic committee, failure of which Zanu-PF will find it extremely difficult to continue to co-operate with or work through Jomic,” Cde Goche said.
Current Jomic chairperson Mrs Priscilla Misihairabwi-Mushonga (MDC) confirmed that the full committee meeting received the complaint from Zanu-PF.
“We will sit down as Jomic co-chairpersons and we will report back to the full committee meeting after discussing the issues raised by Zanu-PF,” she said.
Mrs Misihairabwi-Mushonga said the co-chairpersons would only report back to the full Jomic committee meeting next year. While ZI was headquartered in Cape Town,
South Africa, Zanu-PF noted that the institution had largely shifted its base from that country to Zimbabwe. Cde Goche said ZI transferred most of its staff from Cape Town to Harare, resulting in Jomic changing offices to accommodate them.
Jomic has eight employees, while the ZI has about nine.
Cde Goche said that the ZI director and his deputy had a “long and very strong background with the MDC”.
“The two were founding members of the MDC and worked as directors at the MDC headquarters at Harvest House until the party split in 2005,” Cde Goche said. He said the two moved away with the formation led by MDC leader Professor Welshman Ncube, but disappeared until their 2009 link with Jomic.
“It is believed that during this period they were in South Africa where they later emerged as directors of the Zimbabwe Institute,” said Cde Goche.
He said the ZI director attended major Jomic meetings, including those by co-chairpersons. Cde Goche said some parties in Jomic were failing to raise their quota of people for inter-party meetings in districts.
“This is clear evidence that the parties do not have reasonable members in some districts and are riding on Jomic programmes with the assistance of ZI to start organising membership and creating party structures in those districts,” said Cde Goche.
Online Reporter