FORMER Zanu PF youth leader and founder of the Front for Economic Emancipation of Zimbabwe (FEEZ), Godfrey Tsenengamu has accused President Emmerson Mnangagwa of letting down Zimbabweans and other individuals who put their heads on the block for him to succeed the late former President Robert Mugabe.
Mnangagwa ascended to power through a November 17, 2017
military coup which toppled Mugabe.
Speaking during an interview with Alpha Media Holdings
chairman Trevor Ncube on the platform In Conversation with Trevor, Tsenengamu
said at the time he believed Mnangagwa was the only top party leader with
capacity to end high-profile corruption in the country.
“I was clear from the time Mai (Joice) Mujuru went down
saying I think the one who is going to be the next president was Emmerson
Mnangagwa and it was a taboo to say that,” he said.
“Where I was coming from in Mashonaland Central there were
a lot of fights that were going on within Zanu PF, the maZezurus versus the
Karangas, so naturally I was not expected to be siding with the Zezurus.
“When I was looking at Mnangagwa, I was not seeing a
Karanga. I was seeing somebody with the potential of become a national leader,
so I did not subscribe to this notion of tribal supremacy as it was happening
in Zanu PF.
“I got myself suspended because I had used the church
platform to bring Mnangagwa at Gora to the late VaWimbo. By then the provincial
gurus had said Mnangagwa should not come to Mashonaland Central. I thought that
Mnangagwa deserved to be given a chance to prove what he had said that he was a
better leader and I was looking at him as somebody who was very loyal for some
time to the then President Robert Mugabe and I thought that he had learnt a
number of things from the way Mugabe did his things, what he did right and what
he did wrong.
“I also thought that maybe he was going to be the bridge
between the old madhalas (guard) and the young people coming as a transitional
leader. In my mind, I would say that if Mugabe steps down, Mnangagwa would come
in and after him I had two options between Saviour Kasukuwere and Walter
Mzembi.”
In 2020, Tsenengamu was suspended together with Zanu PF
youth secretary Lewis Matutu for indiscipline after they named Kuda Tagwirei,
Tafadzwa Musarara and Billy Rautenbach as having captured State institutions.
He said that was when he realised that the Mnangagwa he
vouched for pre-November 2017 and the one who got into office where two
different people.
“From our engagements pre-November 2017, he would appear
like someone who was sincere and when he got into power I expected that he was
going to keep his word, he was going to do as we had been discussing before he
got into power.
“When I realised that this was not happening, at first I
thought that those who were around him were the problem, but I said, no we are
going into the same trap or scenario like we did with Mugabe when we thought
that he himself was okay, only those who were surrounding him were the problem.
“But I said no, these people who are surrounding Mnangagwa
did not come from heaven, he appointed them and he is comfortable working with
them, he is pushing through his agenda and whatever that he seeks to do through
them,” he added.
Tsenengamu launched the FEEZ party in 2021.
Mnangagwa’s government has attracted criticism from
politicians and analysts who have described it as incompetent, corrupt and
authoritarian.
Recently, Mnangagwa and his family were implicated in a
gold smuggling and money laundering scam exposed in the documentary, Gold
Mafia, aired by Al Jazeera. Newsday
0 comments:
Post a Comment