ZANU-PF leaders are reportedly toying with the idea of suspending district coordinating committee (DCC) elections following reports that the exercise had caused sharp divisions in the party.
The ruling party is currently on a restructuring exercise
that includes the election of DCC members, but sharp divisions have emerged as
jostling for positions continue.
It has emerged that Zanu-PF bigwigs have been divided, with
some supporting candidates linked to President Emmerson Mnangagwa, while others
are for candidates loyal to his deputy, Constantino Chiwenga.
Chiwenga is allegedly accused of working with former party
members under the banner of G40 to wrest power from his boss, a charge he has denied.
The G40 element in the DCC polls has also made things worse
in the party as Zanu-PF fears they were infiltrating party structures and
sponsoring their preferred candidates to cut Mnangagwa's support base.
Party insiders said so deep were the fights on the ground
that the party may be forced to drop the elections across all provinces.
A lot of chaotic scenes have been reported in Marondera,
Tsholotsho and Mashonaland Central province, where businessman James Makamba
wanted to snatch the provincial chairmanship from Home Affairs minister Kazembe
Kazembe, among others.
In all the chaotic scenes, Zanu-PF members have claimed
infiltration by G40 members linked to former political commissar Saviour
Kasukuwere and former Foreign Affairs minister Walter Mzembi.
Zanu-PF national commissar Victor Matemadanda yesterday
said he was yet to receive a directive to abort the DCC elections, adding that
the speculation on that could be caused by people with "sinister
agendas".
"If there are plans like that, I am yet to get that. I
don't know where that is coming from. If there is such a directive, I am yet to
get communication to that effect," he said.
"It may be a strategy by others to make other
competitors relax while they get on the ground, I don't know really. I don't
have such an instruction," he said.
Last week, Zanu-PF secretary for administration Obert Mpofu
accused the G40 cabal of infiltrating structures and sponsoring chaos in the
processes, an indication that the ruling party was admitting to chaos in the
running of the DCC elections.
The G40 cabal, a group of former Zanu-PF officials forced
into exile following the November 2017 military coup, has insisted that it was
still alive in the party structures as "G40 is an idea whose time has
come".
"They are fighting an idea whose time has come. G40 is
not four of five individuals, it is a renewal thought within Zanu-PF and they
are resisting being succeeded. You can chase four or five people out of the
country with guns, but the structures will remain on the ground," Mzembi
said this week.
In 2012, the late former President Robert Mugabe was forced
to disband the DCCs as they had caused divisions in the party at the height of
factional fights between Mnangagwa and then Vice-President Joice Mujuru.
This came as Mnangagwa was accused of using the DCCs to
consolidate power while angling to take over from Mugabe, when the late veteran
leader was rooting for Mujuru.
Mugabe and Mujuru clashed two years later and she became
the first Vice-President in independent Zimbabwe to be shown the exit door.
Newsday
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