ZANU PF national political commissar Saviour Kasukuwere,
believed to be a G40 kingpin, proposed this week at the party’s politburo
meeting that an extraordinary congress be held in December, two years before it
is due in 2019.
Politburo sources said the reason for the push was to
ensure the party is united ahead of the 2018 general elections after a
gruelling season of infighting, which is threatening to split the liberation
party on factional lines.
The politburo met on Wednesday amid vicious factional
fights over the unresolved succession of 93-year-old President Robert Mugabe as
the two main factions, one led by Vice-President Emmerson Mnangagwa and the
other group referred to as G40, which has coalesced around First Lady Grace
Mugabe.
Sources also said Zanu PF wants to re-endorse Mugabe ahead
of the elections.
After the 2014 elective congress, which resulted in the
political demise of former vice-president Joice Mujuru, the party’s next
elective congress was scheduled for 2019.
The extraordinary congress proposed by the commissariat
department is expected to renew Mugabe’s mandate as the party’s first secretary
as factional fights reach fever pitch.
According to a source privy to the discussions, the G40
faction wants to use the congress to push Mugabe to appoint a new politburo and
reconstitute the central committee which can scuttle Mnangagwa’s aspiration to
succeed the president.
However, sources said Mugabe, after realising that the
proposal had the support of only three provinces, requested that Provincial
Coordinating Committee (PCC) meetings start convening this week to discuss the
issue.
According to the Zanu PF constitution, an extraordinary
congress “may be convened whenever it is deemed necessary”.
It can be convened at the instance of the majority of the
members of the central committee, the president and first secretary, not less
than one-third of members of the central committee and by at least five
provincial executive councils.
After receiving a request for an extraordinary congress,
the president is expected to forward the request to the party’s secretary for
administration, who in turn should give at least six weeks’ notice prior to
convening the extraordinary congress.
The special congress deliberates only on matters for which
it has been specifically convened and three quarters of members shall form a
quorum of the session. Zimbabwe independent
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