via Fake love for ‘Mujuru MPs’ – DailyNews Live 27 January 2015 by Bernard Chiketo
HARARE – Ravaged by escalating factional and succession wars and fearing annihilation at the fast approaching 2018 national elections, Zanu PF has made a humiliating climbdown by moving to accommodate legislators perceived to be sympathetic to ousted former Vice President Joice Mujuru.
This stunning policy reversal was confirmed over the past few days as the party’s political commissar, Savior Kasukuwere, continued to scurry around the country preaching the new gospel of tolerance and camaraderie towards the previously shunned Members of Parliament.
A central committee member was emphatic yesterday that the “fake love” for the previously shunned MPs was allegedly a result of Zanu PF’s fear of losing the 2018 elections, as well as its quest to ward off the ominous challenge by the party’s liberation stalwarts to take President Robert Mugabe head-on.
“This is fake love for the MPs by the party which is in serious panic mode because of the challenge by (former Presidential Affairs minister Didymus) Mutasa and other party veterans, as well as the looming 2018 elections,” the senior party official told the Daily News.
Addressing, first, a Matabeleland South party meeting in Gwanda on Friday, Kasukuwere revealed that all MPs and senators who had been suspended from the party were now to be allowed to attend provincial coordinating committee (PCC) meetings as their suspension did not mean that they had been fired from the party.
His unexpected announcement followed a major ruckus in the region earlier this month when police had to be called to quell disturbances after “suspended” members were kicked out of a heated PCC meeting amid strenuous protests by the affected members.
To the surprise of many people gathered at the Friday meeting, Kasukuwere said the new party position was that only two Zanu PF members, former war veterans leader, Jabulani Sibanda, and former party spokesperson Rugare Gumbo, had been expelled from the party.
“We want our MPs. Like I said, we only expelled two … meaning that everyone else, if there is a meeting in the villages you sit there, listen and chant the slogan but you do not have a position, you sit with others.
“The district or branch chairperson will be your boss but if you are a Member of Parliament or senator, you come and attend a PCC meeting so that we push the party business because we did not fire our MPs from the party. This is the party position,” Kasukuwere said.
He also said that the party would only accept suspensions done before Zanu PF’s disputed congress that was held in Harare late last year, with any other suspensions that were carried after the damp squib “elective” congress to be nullified because they were not carried out in consultation with his office. Addressing a Manicaland PCC meeting along the same lines at Mutare Polytechnic yesterday, Kasukuwere openly admitted that the party had been ravaged by worsening infighting for some time — and reiterated that there would be no recall of MPs perceived to be aligned to Mujuru.
“Let us unite… let’s now get ready for the coming elections,” he said. Politburo member Oppah Muchinguri-Kashiri also told the same meeting that the party would no longer pursue the estranged comrades, choosing instead to bury the hatchet while expecting the dissenters to reform at the same time. “There are some here who were at the fore-front of Gamatox,” Muchinguri-Kashiri said in apparent reference to suspended MP Enock Porusingazi who also attended the meeting.
“We cannot continue fighting. We now want to move forward. You just need to do self-introspection and amend your ways,” she said.
“Zanu PF inodya mazai ayo. Ikaona kuti warasika inokudzinga. Today it’s Mai Mujuru, Rugare Gumbo…mangwana ndiwe. (Zanu PF eats its own eggs. If it notices that you are losing your way, it will expel you. Today its Mujuru, Rugare Gumbo… tomorrow it’s you) if you are not careful,” Muchinguri-Kashiri added.
“All members who have not been expelled by the party remain in the party and retain their positions as MPs. Only two people were expelled from the party and that’s Rugare Gumbo and Jabulani Sibanda,” Kasukuwere underscored the point, adding that affected members would only face internal disciplinary action that would not affect their tenure as sitting MPs.
“Porusingazi has been suspended not expelled, hence he retains his seat,” Kasukuwere said and promptly went on to hug Porusingazi in full view of the gathered party members.
Meanwhile, Kasukuwere also said the politburo would determine the fate of the embattled Mutasa, amid a chorus of calls for him to be expelled from the party by his home province. “The province has given the recommendation and the highest decision-making body of the party will make a determination,” he said.
Muchinguri-Kashiri had earlier urged Kasukuwere to expeditiously take the province’s call for Mutasa’s expulsion to the politburo.
“Endai munotitaurirawo kuti vatibvisire Didymus Mutasa nekukasira. Tinoda kudealer naye zvakasimba kana politburo yatibatsira (Go and tell them on our behalf to quickly expel Didymus Mutasa. We want to deal with him strongly if the poltiburo helps us in that regard),” Muchinguri-Kashiri said.
In calling for the total expulsion of Mutasa from the party, acting Zanu PF provincial chairperson Samuel Undenge said Mutasa’s case needed to be treated as a special case separate from other suspensions.
“This is petitioned by his constituency asking for him to be recalled. We are treating the Headlands issue as a unique case and separately from other suspensions so that we completely remove Didymus Mutasa from Zanu PF,” he said. Undenge also said that there was a general feeling among Zanu PF members in the province that MPs accused of being aligned to the Mujuru faction had to be recalled.
“The feeling of our people is that these people should all be recalled,” he said, adding that there was another petition from Chimanimani West calling for the recall of former Energy deputy minister Munacho Mutezo.
But a disgruntled member who spoke to the Daily News said being subjected to an internal disciplinary process was still an “unnecessary ritual” considering that the charges they faced had been trumped up.
He described the mooted disciplinary processes as “just a face saver after all the allegations that were flying around”.
“They obviously can’t just call it quits, so they are now talking of this unnecessary ritual of disciplinary processes, they just need to try and find closure to the whole process,” the official said.
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