WITH ZANU PF continuing to reel from its long-standing
demons of factionalism and tribalism, its national political commissar Victor
Matemadanda has warned that the future of the party is on the line if its
bigwigs don’t stop their destructive politicking, the Daily News On Sunday
reports.
Addressing Zanu PF structures in Harare last week, the
straight-talking Matemadanda — who is also Deputy Defence minister and
secretary-general of the Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans Association
(ZNLWVA) — also demanded warring party officials to show loyalty to President
Emmerson Mnangagwa.
He warned that the ongoing infighting in Zanu PF would have
serious consequences for the former liberation movement — adding that it was in
no one’s interest for the ruling party to return to the anarchy that was
witnessed in the last few years in power of the late former president Robert
Mugabe, when factionalism, tribalism and succession wars split it through the
middle.
This comes as there are widening fissures in the party,
which recently jettisoned two politburo members — Cleveria Chizema and Tendai
Savanhu — for allegedly showing disloyalty to the party and its leadership.
“There is this habit among party members of labelling each
other G40 (a vanquished faction of the party) for example. People are not
putting maximum effort to their party work due to this.
“We must know that Mugabe was our leader … for nearly 40
years. All of us wanted to be close even to (Mugabe’s wife) Grace.
“We must forget about the past and start new things so that
our party can continue to grow. You must not make unnecessary accusations
against each other,” Matemadanda said.
“I want to warn you … this must stop for the good of our
party. The MDC is dead and we can’t lose elections to a dead party. But as long
as we remain divided we will not go anywhere.
“We are witnessing tribal wars but we can’t run the party
through tribal lines,” he added ruefully.
Matemadanda said
further that failure to nip factionalism and tribalism in the bud in the party
would have serious ramifications for its survival.
“We respected (the late vice president Joshua) Nkomo as our
leader. People from Plumtree up to Mutoko sang songs praising Nkomo.
“Our relationship should not be premised on tribalism and
regionalism. Some are saying let us wait and see whether we are going to
support a certain leader or not.
“That’s what you are doing here in Harare … this habit has
grown in Harare. It is now like a huge tree and you are saying we are tribal
specialists.
“This is not good for the party and it must stop,”
Matemadanda warned.
This comes as Mnangagwa — who ascended to power via a
popular military coup — has come under growing pressure from long-suffering
Zimbabweans over his government’s failure to mend the country’s broken economy.
It also comes as more and more Zanu PF bigwigs are
bemoaning the resurgence of the party’s factional, tribal and succession demons
— which devastated the former liberation movement during Mugabe’s last few
years in power.
Then, Mnangagwa was involved in a hammer and tongs war with
the party’s Generation 40 (G40) faction — which had coalesced around the
nonagenarian’s erratic wife Grace.
The vicious brawling took a nasty turn when Mnangagwa was
allegedly poisoned by his rivals during one of Mugabe’s highly-divisive youth
interface rallies in Gwanda in 2017.
The then VP’s fate was eventually sealed on November 6,
2017 when Mugabe fired his long-time lieutenant a few days after his allies had
booed the irascible Grace during a tense rally at White City Stadium in
Bulawayo.
However, tables were dramatically turned on Mugabe when the
military rolled in their tanks on November 15 of that year and deposed the
long-ruling leader from power — which saw a number of alleged G40 kingpins
fleeing into self-imposed exile soon afterwards.
But despite Mnangagwa’s ascendancy to power, some ambitious
bigwigs in the former liberation movement continue to stand accused of plotting
to unseat the new Zanu PF leader. Daily News
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