High noon for Kasukuwere?

Source: High noon for Kasukuwere? – DailyNews Live

Fungi Kwaramba      13 May 2017

HARARE – All eyes are on the brawling Zanu PF’s next politburo meeting,
amid confirmation yesterday that the probe team appointed by President
Robert Mugabe to investigate grave allegations against the party’s
under-fire national political commissar, Saviour Kasukuwere, has completed
its work.

This comes as Kasukuwere’s Zanu PF adversaries in his restive home
province of Mashonaland Central are also insisting that the beleaguered
Local Government minister is “a dead man walking” politically and that it
is now “a matter of time” before he is relieved of his duties in the
warring former liberation movement.

At the same time, and with his back to the wall, Kasukuwere has carried
through his threat to slap Mashonaland Central Provincial Affairs
minister, Martin Dinha, with a second lawsuit inside two weeks.

But Dinha, a lawyer, told the Daily News yesterday that Kasukuwere was
“fighting a losing battle” as his political fate had allegedly been
“sealed” after the ruling party’s 10 provinces passed a vote of no
confidence against him.

“He is already in the sewage pond and he cannot claim any loss of dignity
or honour, or self-esteem because he is already in the gutters. I cherish
the day I will cross-examine him and expose to the whole world what I know
about him.

“He is running scared which is why he has thrown the $500 000 lawsuit
against me. I am aware that my brother-in-law (Kasukuwere) is a part-time
second year law student at the University of Zimbabwe.

“I am also aware that he is excited to put (his legal) theory into
practice, but my advice to him is to stop all these litigations until he
has fully studied the law on defamation.

“He is a public official and active politician who is subject to public
scrutiny and accountability. The game of politics is a rough game which
involves kicking, biting and screaming. This latest lawsuit shows how
desperate a man he is.

“He wants to gag the press and intimidate me into silence, but I will not
be intimidated by him . . . I am a lawyer by profession and law is my
food,” Dinha told the Daily News.

Kasukuwere has been fighting to save his political career over the past
few weeks, with angry Zanu PF supporters pushing for his ouster from both
his party and government positions, over a raft of charges which include
allegedly plotting to topple Mugabe from power.

Also under fire has been his brother Dickson Mafios, who is the acting
Zanu PF chairperson for Mashonaland Central.

Amid the calls by Zanu PF supporters for him to be stripped of the party’s
powerful post of national political commissar, the public spat between
Kasukuwere and Dinha has escalated.

In his latest legal action, Kasukuwere is suing Dinha and State media on
account of recent sensational claims that he was working with combative
former African National Congress (ANC) youth leader and now South African
opposition leader, Julius Malema, to remove Mugabe from power.

Both Kasukuwere and the erudite Malema have robustly pooh-poohed the
claims.

In his latest defamation suit, Kasukuwere said Dinha’s claims “are untrue,
wrongful and defamatory” and “were intended and were understood . . . to
mean (Kasukuwere) is dishonest, violent, power hungry, pretentious and
unworthy of leadership.

“The defendant’s said words were further understood to mean that the
plaintiff is a criminal with intentions of toppling a
constitutionally-elected president.

“As a result of the defamation, plaintiff has been damaged in his
reputation and has suffered damages in the amount of $500 000,” he
charged.

Dinha and Kasukuwere have been throwing brickbats at each other ever since
Kasukuwere was put on political notice by his home province.

Later, Kasukuwere accused Dinha of working with his enemies in the party
to have him axed from the former liberation movement.

“Dinha is an instrument to aid the regime change agenda. His activities in
Mashonaland Central are clearly aimed at advancing a factional position.

“He has made himself the point man to advance a so-called alternative
narrative and at the same time lying that he is close to the first family
and abusing this theory.

“I will soon expose his hidden agenda of fast-tracking regime change, and
I will dispose of all his allegations one by one.

“Besides the hidden agenda he is pushing at the behest of the real people
who no longer want the president, he has a personal agenda where he asked
me to help him lobby to be the minister of Justice.

“If he wants that job, he has to approach the appointing authority who is
. . . Mugabe,” a fuming Kasukuwere told the Daily News then.

But Dinha, who claimed to have received death threats days after publicly
backing the ouster of Kasukuwere, in turn parried the claims.

Zanu PF insiders have claimed that Kasukuwere and Higher and Tertiary
Education minister Jonathan Moyo are two of the kingpins of the Generation
40 (G40) faction which is fiercely opposed to Vice President Emmerson
Mnangagwa succeeding Mugabe.

This faction has for some time now been described as being “at sixes and
sevens”, following the growing pressure that has been brought to bear on
its leading figures.

Sources have also previously told the Daily News that Zanu PF’s ever-fluid
factional and succession politics were changing gear again, as there was
now an apparent realignment of alliances within the warring former
liberation movement – as Mnangagwa’s allies cranked up their assault on
the G40.

Observers have also consistently said Mugabe’s failure to resolve Zanu
PF’s thorny succession riddle is fuelling the ruling party’s deadly
infighting, which is worsening by the day.

The 93-year-old has studiously refused to name a successor, insisting that
the party’s congress has that mandate: to choose a person of their own