THE MDC has made sensational claims that it is working with
some disgruntled Zanu PF MPs to impeach President Emmerson Mnangagwa, pictured,
over the country’s worsening economic rot and the recent killings of innocent
civilians by security forces, the Daily News reports.
This comes as Zanu PF’s notorious demons of factionalism
and tribalism have returned to the former liberation movement with a vengeance
— with devastating effects on both the ruling party and the country.
However, Zanu PF said yesterday that it was “wishful
thinking” on the part of the MDC to think that the country’s main opposition
could sway its legislators to turn against its leader, “no matter the
circumstances”.
But combative MDC deputy national chairperson Job Sikhala
told the Daily News that they were in “earnest talks” with some unnamed Zanu PF
Members of Parliament to try and impeach Mnangagwa.
“Impeachment is one of the available ways to the country to
get rid of this dictator. There are many people in Zanu PF who are fed up with
his brutal rule and they have been whispering to and encouraging us to take
that move (impeachment).
“There is, therefore, no doubt that impeachment can be
carried out … every possible card is on the table, but I will not divulge our
next strategy for now.
“Violation of the Constitution is central to every
impeachment process, the main one being the crimes against humanity that were
committed on the people of Zimbabwe in August 2018 and in January 2019,”
Sikhala said.
The militant Zengeza West MP was referring to the August 1,
2018 army shootings which left at least six innocent civilians dead — after
soldiers used live ammunition to quell an ugly demonstration in Harare.
Security forces were further accused of killing at least 20
civilians in January 2019 following deadly riots which erupted in Harare,
Bulawayo and several other towns — after a steep fuel price hike that was
announced by Mnangagwa ahead of his trips to Eastern Europe at the time.
Sikhala said all this formed part of the grounds to impeach
Mnangagwa — who later set up a commission of inquiry to deal with the August
2018 killings.
Rights groups and Western powers have also demanded punishment
for the security forces accused of killing the civilians in 2018 and last year.
Sikhala also said yesterday that the country’s worsening
economic rot, as well as its high unemployment and poverty levels also provided
solid reasons to push for Mnangagwa’s ouster.
“In addition, his failure to fulfil any of his promises is
an aggravating factor. He promised jobs, jobs and more jobs when he committed
the coup in 2017.
“But we have never witnessed a single job that he created.
No single industry has opened and instead, people are losing the jobs they had
during (the late president Robert) Mugabe’s era.
“Finally, he is an illegitimate president. He rigged
against President (Nelson) Chamisa. The presidency he holds is clothed with all
the characteristics of illegitimacy.
“The people’s president is Advocate Nelson Chamisa, not
this masquerade,” the take-no-prisoners Sikhala said further.
The planned putsch against Mnangagwa comes as Zanu PF is
reeling from escalating factional wars. At the same time,
Zimbabwe is in the grip of a gigantic economic crisis — the worst in a decade —
which has stoked tensions in the country.
Although the MDC doesn’t have the numbers in Parliament to
impeach Mnangagwa, it is banking the support of disgruntled Zanu PF legislators
in this mission.
But the ruling party scoffed at the MDC’s claim yesterday
that the opposition party was negotiating with some of its disgruntled members
to jettison Mnangagwa from power.
Zanu PF chief whip Pupurai Togarepi said the planned
impeachment would “not happen”.
“Such a motion is a figment of the imagination of losers
who have neither the numbers in Parliament, nor the reasons to call for this.
“It is ironic, if not moronic, that a party that was
rejected by the people is attempting to subvert the will of the people.
“They are on shaky ground with shaky ideas,” a dismissive
Togarepi told the Daily News.
This is not the first time that it has been suggested that
Parliament could move to impeach Mnangagwa.
In 2018, Mnangagwa —
who came to power in November 2017 following a military coup — readily admitted
that there was a sinister plot by his own MPs to impeach him.
Addressing Zanu PF supporters after the party’s chaotic
primary elections on May 30, 2018, Mnangagwa also warned the supposed plotters
that it would not be easy to impeach him.
“I got intelligence that some of those who have won these
primary elections have two minds.
“They have gone to join the Zanu PF wagon using various
tricks, money included, to be elected with a possible view that once in
Parliament, they will band together and move a motion of impeachment.
“There are two things I would want you to know. First, you
must realise that the Constitution provides the basis of impeachment and such
basis must be fulfilled before impeachment proceedings begin.
“Secondly, our Constitution provides a tool, an instrument
to chuck out from Parliament any member, who we think is not Zanu PF anymore,”
Mnangagwa said then.
Under the country’s jurisprudence, impeachment is a process
that may be used to charge and to remove from office public officials accused
of serious misconduct.
Section 97 of the Constitution says the Senate and the
National Assembly, by a joint resolution passed by at least one-half of their
total membership, can deal with the question of whether the president or a vice
president should be removed from office for various reasons.
But a president can only be removed from office if he or
she is found to have engaged in acts of serious misconduct, has failed to obey,
uphold or defend the Constitution, and wilfully violates the Constitution or is
unable to perform the functions of the highest office in the land because of
physical or mental incapacity.
In January last year, one of Mnangagwa’s most loyal
lieutenants and MP for Gokwe Nembudziya, Justice Mayor Wadyajena, threw the cat
among the pigeons when he also made sensational claims that some Zanu PF
legislators were planning to impeach their leader.
“They threatened to kill me & harm my family. I stand
by @edmnangagwa & wish they knew ours isn’t just a political relationship.
“However they try, we’ll never quit nor be intimidated. The
plot is foiled, they lack numbers for impeachment & the devil isn’t
@ProfJNMoyo but amongst us!” Wadyajena said on Twitter.
Zanu PF’s brutal factional, tribal and succession wars that
had for long ravaged the ruling party were temporarily ended in dramatic fashion
by the military which rolled its tanks into Harare on November 15, 2017— after
deciding that they had had enough of Mugabe and his erratic wife Grace. Daily
News
0 comments:
Post a Comment