FISSURES are widening in the ruling Zanu PF, amid damaging allegations of “dirty money” exchanging hands to influence the outcome of the party’s district co-ordinating committee (DCC) elections, the Daily News On Sunday can reveal.
At the centre of the former liberation movement’s latest
infighting are allegations that remnants of the party’s vanquished Generation
40 (G40) faction are attempting to seize structures and use them in the looming
DCC polls to regain control of the party.
This comes as the Zanu PF security department has been
roped in to investigate these allegations and to deal with the growing ructions
in general, which have sullied the party’s preparations for the pending DCC
elections.
It also comes as Zanu PF’s internal wars are
fast-approaching the levels that almost disembowelled the party in the last few
years in office of the late former president Robert Mugabe — who was later
ousted from power by a stunning and popular military coup in November 2017.
Yesterday, party insiders told the Daily News on Sunday
that G40 remnants wanted to influence the outcome of the DCC elections and were
thus allegedly sponsoring candidates, mainly in the three Mashonaland
provinces.
At the height of the party’s vicious wars between the G40
and a faction that was backing President Emmerson Mnangagwa when he was still
Mugabe’s deputy, the three provinces were under the control of the new Zanu PF
leader’s foes.
According to the party insiders, the three provinces are
once again being primed to be the springboard for challenging Mnangagwa. “Remnants
of the G40 want to get control of the three provinces as a launch pad to take
over from Mnangagwa.
“A lot of money is exchanging hands under the table. There
is a need for thorough vetting to fish out the malcontents.
“The good thing is that we unravelled the plot before we
went to the elections,” one of the party insiders told the Daily News On Sunday
yesterday.
Mnangagwa, the insiders added, was apparently aware of all
the alleged machinations and had instructed the Zanu PF commissariat and
security departments to vigilantly vet would-be candidates.
Zanu PF secretary for security in the party’s politburo,
Lovemore Matuke, confirmed to the Daily News On Sunday yesterday that the party
was investigating myriad allegations — including those relating to money
exchanging hands, the imposition of candidates and factionalism.
“We received reports of people who are circulating dirty
money from G40. We are investigating because we believe in tangible evidence.
“We are going to deal with the issue when we vet papers
from Mashonaland Central and other provinces. “We are going to look at all
these accusations because people can do anything,” Matuke told the Daily News
On Sunday.
“We want to clean the party. By the time of the (DCC)
elections, we will have a clean list of candidates. “We are going to flush out
all G40 elements, but we are also guarding against enmity between some members
who are labelling each other G40. We are currently seized with the matter.”
Matuke added.
This comes as there is a resurgency of factional and tribal
wars in the ruling party, which split Zanu PF in the middle in Mugabe’s last
few years in power.
Recently, Zanu PF had to rope in its security department to
deal with the worsening ructions which are threatening the elections to choose
members of its re-introduced DCCs.
In addition, Mnangagwa recently deployed Zanu PF bigwigs in
provinces that are being ravaged by the ugly infighting ahead of the DCC
elections.
Matuke recently told the Daily News On Sunday’s sister
publication, the Daily News, that his department had been called in to restore
order in the brawling party.
“There are some G40 elements who are trying to come back,
but we are strictly vetting the CVs. We are going to look at each CV as we want
to deal with these elements.
“We are receiving reports from provinces on this issue. As
the party security, we are going to do our work diligently and weed out such
elements. There are some people who were fighting the current leadership who
want to use these elections to come back into the structures and destabilise the
party,” Matuke said then.
The party’s DCCs were disbanded in 2012 after they were
deemed to be fanning factionalism during Mnangagwa and former vice president
Joice Mujuru’s battles to succeed Mugabe.
Then, Mnangagwa’s group had gained control of most regions,
including Mujuru’s Mashonaland Central province — putting him in a strong
position ahead of the party’s 2014 congress.
Last month, liberation stalwart and former Cabinet minister
Tshinga Dube highlighted the growing factionalism in Zanu PF when he warned
that it would be futile for South Africa President Cyril Ramaphosa and his
African National Congress (ANC) to hope to end Zimbabwe’s long-standing
political and economic crisis without winning support from the party’s brawling
factions.
“It all starts with the leaders in Zanu PF agreeing that we
need dialogue and that South Africa has a critical role to play.
“They need to find common ground on that to make the ANC’s
work easier. We can blame this group or that group, but I don’t want to do that
because what is important, for the sake of progress, is that they must find
each other.
“It is not difficult for the leaders to find each other
because they have been working together for quite a long time,” the fearless
Dube told the Daily News On Sunday.
“I don’t think it is impossible for them (Zanu PF factions)
to do that for the good of the country and our people. That is what leadership
is all about. If they do not agree and continue like that, then it will be
difficult for anyone who wants to help, including the ANC,” he added.
The widening fissures in Zanu PF appear to have taken the
same route of the last few years in power of Mugabe.
Then, Mnangagwa was involved in a hammer and tongs war with
the G40 faction — which had coalesced around Mugabe’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.
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