Zanu-PF has dismissed reports of a purpoted rift between
President Mnangagwa and his deputy, Vice-President Constantino Chiwenga peddled
in yesterday’s issue of The Standard newspaper saying “such fiction and fertile
imagination was a clear manifestation of yellow journalism”.
The Standard report claimed that a feud between President
Mnangagwa and VP Chiwenga is escalating following the disbanding of Harare and
Bulawayo provincial party structures by President Mnangagwa.
In its article titled “ED Chiwenga feud escalates,” the
paper said the appointment of Cde Oliver Chidawu as Harare Provincial Affairs
Minister by President Mnangagwa is one of the moves in the factional feud.
The story claimed President Mnangagwa disbanded Zanu-PF
structures in Harare and Bulawayo following growing concerns that VP Chiwenga’s
influence was creating two centres of power.
Zanu-PF spokesperson Ambassador Simon Khaya Moyo yesterday
rubbished the claims saying there was no rift between the two leaders and
factionalism only exists in the minds of the party’s detractors. “This is of
course the height of gutter journalism, creating an impression that there is
any feud existing between our two leaders. Such fiction and fertile imagination
is indeed a clear manifestation of yellow journalism by the writer,” he said.
“For the true record, Zanu-PF has, since the advent of the
new dispensation in November 2017,exercised collective leadership at all levels
including the said two most senior politicians. Factionalism only exist in the
minds of the party’s detractors.
“The story is therefore as dead as a dodo. It is a tired
story sounding like a broken record playing in the graveyard. The dissolution
of the party’s organs in Harare and Bulawayo provinces is simply meant to
strengthen the party given their strategic importance as metropolitan
provinces.”
Ambassador Khaya Moyo said the restructuring of the party
is a normal exercise carried out as and when necessary.
He condemned what he called wayward conduct which has
proliferated in the media industry, particularly the private media.
Last month President Mnangagwa denied the existence of a
rift between himself and his deputy saying “not a single person” had provided
evidence of divisions between him and VP Chiwenga.
“I have known Chiwenga and his colleagues (in the military)
since the struggle years. We are comrades and understand each other better than
you think,” President Mnangagwa said. Herald
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