ZANU PF stalwart and ex secretary for administration, Didymus Mutasa, says very senior party officials are behind the dog-eat dog mayhem ravaging the former liberation movement ahead of its divisive district co-ordinating committee (DCC) elections.
Speaking in an
exclusive interview with the Daily News On Sunday yesterday, Mutasa said his
knowledge of, and experience in Zanu PF, suggested that politburo members and
senior Cabinet ministers were the main cause of the current chaos in the ruling party.
This comes as Zanu PF’s deadly tribal and factional demons
of yesteryear are once again wreaking havoc in the former liberation movement,
over the pending polls of the key DCC structures that were banned during the
last few years in power of the late
former president Robert Mugabe.
It also comes as there are strong sentiments by some in
Zanu PF that the DCCs must be disbanded on account of their alleged divisive
nature. Mutasa said he had little doubt that top Zanu PF bigwigs were muddying
the waters ahead of the DCC polls, creating chaos at grassroots levels.
“You cannot have someone coming all the way from Harare to
conduct elections in Manicaland, for example. “What is the provincial minister
doing t h e r e ? He or she is the person on the ground and must have authority
over party chairpersons in the
districts.
“Confusion is being caused by the people from Harare dictating to people in places like Rusape what to do in terms of voting,” Mutasa said. The liberation stalwart was fired from Zanu PF during the height of factional fights between the then vice president Joice Mujuru and then secretary for legal affairs in the party, President Emmerson Mnangagwa, in December 2014.
He has since been reinstated into the party and is tipped
to become one of the party’s leaders within the mooted Elders’ Council. In the
mean – t i m e , Z a n u P F acting spokesperson, Patrick Chinamasa, has
dismissed calls for the DCCs to be
disbanded, arguing that contradictions were normal in power contestations.
“Where there is a contestation of this nature there are people who, in
pursuit of their interests, have different views about the process. “Those who
fear losing always cast aspersions on the process.
People must learn to lose and accept. What is key is that
the elections must be conducted fairly and transparently.
“The issue about disbanding them is a nonstarter. DCCs are
now part of the constitution. We need them to co-ordinate party activities. “We
took the decision to reintroduce them only last year. Any challenges emanating
from there will be managed by the commissariat,”
Chinamsa told the Daily News On Sunday. Turning to
allegations that bigwigs were imposing their own candidates, the former Finance minister said sometimes
people misunderstand the word “imposition”.
“Imposition is when one declares that so and so must be the
candidate while sidelining others. We will make sure that all CVs are
considered so that those who qualify contest,” he said.
All this comes as University of Zimbabwe political science
lecturer Eldred Masunungure has advised Mnangagwa to follow the example of his
predecessor by doing away with the DCCs, to ensure cohesion in Zanu PF.
“It appears to me that the contradictions that led Mugabe
to disband them are still alive, and hence it makes sense that the DCCs be discarded.
“In fact, it is most likely that they will suffer the same
fate they suffered under Mugabe as they are a magnet that attracts factional
fights,” he said.
The DCC structures elect Zanu PF’s 10 provincial executives
— from where the party and Mnangagwa draw members of the central committee and
the politburo.
The party’s DCCs were disbanded in 2012 after they were
deemed to be fanning factionalism during Mnangagwa and 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. Mnangagwa himself warned brawling
Zanu PF bigwigs last week that they risked being cut loose from the party, as
he sought to engender unity in the factionsridden former liberation movement.
Addressing a Zanu PF politburo meeting in Harare — ahead of the contentious but
influential DCC elections — a bristling Mnangagwa said he had had enough of his lieutenants’ infighting and
other untoward actions.
This came after former Cabinet minister and Zanu PF
stalwart, Tshinga Dube, had also warned that the ugly factionalism and
succession wars plaguing the ruling party were derailing Mnangagwa’s efforts to
resolve the country’s decades-long
political and economic challenges.
It also came as the ruling party’s recently held Harare
provincial primary elections had their results withheld, amid a slew of
allegations ranging from ballot cheating to bribery.
“As DCC campaigns are under way, members must continue to
conduct themselves in an orderly manner. Irregularities reported must be fairly
and impartially addressed, as guided by our party’s constitution.
“Equally, uncouth behaviour such as the imposition of
candidates, vote buying and other electoral malpractices which divide the party
are not acceptable.
“I must reiterate that the quality of the candidates should
correspond to the DCC we all envision, as directed by the party’s people annual
conference of 2018,” Mnangagwa thundered. The DCCs structures boost our party
constitutionalism, internal democracy, and grass root mobilisation.
“Our party constitution, rules, regulations, values and traditions must always be our cardinal political and moral compass.
“I reiterate that … the party constitution obligates
members, inter alia to be loyal, patriotic and dispense themselves honourably
in their dealings with the party and must never soil its name,” Mnangagwa
added.
He also warned that Zanu PF needed to remain wary of the
threats posed by the party’s vanquished Generation 40 (G40) faction and other
detractors.
“As such, the overwhelming response by the prospective
candidates shows that we are indeed a people’s party. As DCC campaigns are
underway, members must continue to conduct themselves in an orderly manner.
“As exponents of our party and its ideology, we must be
alive to the clandestine machinations of detractors, the G40 cabal and their
sympathisers.
“The consortium is using social media, among other means,
to launch an onslaught on our country and the party.
“These perennial nay-sayers must be doomed to the political
abyss once and for all, and they must never be allowed to succeed,” the
78-year-old Zanu PF leader said further. Daily News
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