THE Zanu PF youth league yesterday called for the
reconstitution of the ruling party’s presidium, sounding the death knell on
beleaguered Vice-President Emmerson Mnangagwa.
An extraordinary meeting of the youth league national
executive which was convened in Harare yesterday to consider various issues,
including the call for an extraordinary congress, resolved to call on President
Robert Mugabe to convene the gathering for the re-introduction of the women’s
quota.
“Following the unanimous adoption by all 10 Zanu PF
provinces to call on President Robert Mugabe to convene an extraordinary
session of congress, the youth league, therefore, implores the President and
first secretary of the party to convene an extraordinary session of congress in
order to allow the party to reaffirm the endorsement of its iconic leader Cde R
G Mugabe as the sole centre of power in the party and sole presidential
candidate in the 2018 general elections,” Zanu PF secretary for youths
Kudzanayi Chipanga said.
“To call upon the party to respect the Victoria Falls
conference resolution, which recommended the re-introduction of the women’s
quota.”
Chipanga did not entertain questions. All 10 Zanu PF
provincial co-ordinating committees met last weekend and resolved to call on
Mugabe to convene the extraordinary congress.
The issue was triggered following a meeting of the
politburo, where it is claimed that a faction of the ruling party known as G40,
which is bitterly opposed to Mnangagwa’s bid to succeed Mugabe, brought up the
issue of turning this year’s annual conference into an elective congress.
The G40 group initially pushed for First Lady Grace Mugabe
to succeed her husband, but later parachuted Defence minister Sydney Sekeramayi
into the succession matrix.
The latest demand for a woman into the presidium could, however,
signal yet another shift in allegiances back to Grace.
Mugabe has publicly rejected the idea of handing over power
to his wife or even to anoint a successor, arguing it would be
unconstitutional.
At the Zanu PF 2014 congress, Mnangagwa benefited from
changes to the ruling party’s constitution that removed the provision requiring
that one of Mugabe’s deputies must be a woman after then Vice-President Joice
Mujuru was stampeded out of the party under a cloud on allegations bordering on
treason before she joined opposition ranks.
Apparently, Mujuru had benefited from the introduction of
the women’s quota provision in 2004, dealing a body blow to Mnangagwa, who at
the time looked a shoo-in to take up the position then left vacant following
the death of former Vice President Simon Muzenda. Newsday
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