Zanu PF Masvingo provincial executive is moving to seal the
fate of embattled Chivi South MP Killer Zivhu, despite the party’s national
disciplinary committee, headed by chairperson Oppah Muchinguri still to hear
his appeal against expulsion.
Members of the provincial executive, headed by commissar
Jevas Masosota yesterday met villagers, traditional leaders, war veterans, war
collaborators, councillors and Zanu PF structures at Madzivire Primary School
in Ngundu where they were instructed to stop associating with development
initiatives being spearheaded by Zivhu.
Participants to the meeting said people were told to
prepare for primary elections ahead of a by-election to replace Zivhu who they
said was as good as fired, despite the national disciplinary committee still to
sit to hear both sides.
“They claimed that Zivhu’s fate was sealed during a meeting
they held at President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s farm in Kwekwe where it was agreed
that all MPs suspected to have been associated with the G40 faction will be
fired,” a Zanu PF district official, who attended the meeting, said.
Another villager said they were threatened with severe
consequences if they continued working with Zivhu, who has initiated several
development projects in Chivi, among them the construction of schools and
clinics.
“Ordinary villagers were warned that they will not receive
food aid if seen working with the MP, while civil servants risked being
transferred. Traditional leaders and councillors were also warned that their
positions were at risk for working with the current MP.”
Zivhu was recently suspended by the Masvingo provincial
executive for calling for dialogue between Mnangagwa and opposition MDC leader
Nelson Chamisa as part of efforts to end the economic crisis in the country.
Contacted for comment, Masosota confirmed organising the
meeting, but denied that it was meant to threaten people against associating
themselves with Zivhu.
Masosota said the meeting was simply to tell the leadership
about their position on Zivhu’s issue.
“The idea was for them not to rely on hearsay or the media.
As a province, we had already resolved to expel him from the party. There was
nothing like intimidation. We invited only our chairpersons and few councillors
and not headmen and chiefs,” he said.
Zivhu’s lawyer, Advocate Paul Machiridza said it was
unfortunate and regrettable that some “comrades of the party” still behaved and
acted as if the country was still in the old dispensation.
“They should wake up and smell the coffee. It’s now the new
dispensation, whose underpinning ethos are legality, constitutionalism,
progress and development. They have jumped the gun!,” Machiridza said.
“The matter is before the party’s national disciplinary
committee and awaits hearing at the appropriate time. How someone under a tree
somewhere in Chivi can choose to undermine and ride rough-shod over the party
constitution, its organs and processes is an act of cowardice and pure
ignorance.
“That is undermining the party and bringing into disrepute
the name of His Excellency the first secretary and president of the party to
the extent they say all such rubbish in the name of the party and His
Excellency,” he added. Newsday
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