‘Mess with Mugabe and we’ll go to war’

Source: ‘Mess with Mugabe and we’ll go to war’ – DailyNews Live 20 January 2017

Mugove Tafirenyika

HARARE – As Zanu PF’s deadly tribal, factional and succession wars get
uglier, the party’s youths have warned disgruntled former freedom fighters
and other allies of Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa that they are
prepared to take up arms to defend President Robert Mugabe.

Speaking to the Daily News yesterday, Zanu PF youth league leader Kudzanai
Chipanga said they were now “so angry” with the ongoing savage attacks on
Mugabe by some sections of the former liberation movement that they would
“go to war” to defend the under-siege nonagenarian.

The youth league’s ominous warning comes as the party’s two major
factions, the Generation 40 (G40) group and Team Lacoste, have recently
escalated their succession fights, particularly since images showing
Mnangagwa holding a coffee mug inscribed with the words “I am the Boss”
emerged over the festive season.

“The presidency is not a straightjacket. We also understand that when our
parents went to war, they were fighting for one man, one vote.

“So, any attempt by anyone to impose a leader on us in Zanu PF will be
resisted fiercely by the youths who are even prepared to take up arms in
defence of that principle. We are not going to be intimidated by anyone,”
he thundered.

“We will not be bystanders and watch them (Mugabe’s Zanu PF foes) grab
power using unscrupulous means. That we will resist by any means
necessary. We will not brook such nonsense.

“When they (war vets) felt that they were oppressed by the Smith regime,
they decided to take up arms and fight.

“So, nothing will stop us from doing the same when they themselves now
make attempts to defeat the purpose of the struggle which the country’s
gallant sons and daughters went to war for.

“The president is not afraid of elections . . . if they want someone of
that calibre, they should bring him forward and challenge for the position
because we will help them advocate for a special congress,” the angry
Chipanga added.

Zanu PF insiders say Chipanga and a large cross-section of the youth
league are part of the G40 camp which is rabidly opposed to Mnangagwa
succeeding Mugabe, while Team Lacoste is solidly  behind the VP.

The threat to take up arms by Chipanga comes as Mnangagwa’s allies, who
include former Cabinet minister Christopher Mutsvangwa and the majority of
war veterans, have gone public with their vociferous support for the
Midlands godfather to succeed Mugabe, who turns a mature 93 years old next
month.

War veterans have also previously warned ominously, that blood could be
shed in the country if Mnangagwa does not succeed the increasingly frail
nonagenarian who has studiously refused to name his successor, arguing
that Zanu PF should rather follow what he sees as a more democratic
process to manage his succession – doing so through a congress.

The former freedom fighters served as the bedrock of Mugabe’s and Zanu
PF’s rule until last year when they stunningly fell out with the
nonagenarian in July last year.

Chipanga suggested yesterday that even if Zanu PF were to call for an
extraordinary congress to choose Mugabe’s successor, Team Lacoste had “no
chance in hell” to take over.

“One good thing about politics is that it is a game of numbers and if they
outshine us in an election then God bless them,” he said sarcastically.

At last December’s Zanu PF annual conference in Masvingo, Chipanga sent
tongues wagging when he said the youth league had adopted resolutions to
have Mugabe declared life president.

“We strongly reaffirm Mugabe as the life president and the party’s sole
candidate for all future elections, with no term limits,” he told
delegates while reading out the league’s resolutions.

In recent weeks, Mnangagwa’s allies have been ratcheting up their loud
calls for Mugabe to retire now and pave the way for his long-time aide to
take over at both party and government levels.

Expelled former Mashonaland Central youth chairman and a key Mnangagwa
ally, Godfrey Tsenengamu, has also warned that if Mnangagwa did not
confront Mugabe and the succession issue now, he risked losing much of the
support of his battle-weary followers and other Zimbabweans who were
yearning for change.

“ED (Mnangagwa) is too loyal to Mugabe and we can’t eat his loyalty to his
leader. We are worried about our future as a younger generation and if
what matters to him is his loyalty to Mugabe then they are going to go
down together because we can’t vote for Mugabe in 2018.

“People need to understand that this is not about Mnangagwa but our future
as a party and a nation. It is not Mnangagwa who is demanding that the
succession issue be addressed now, but us as concerned citizens,”
Tsenengamu said.

Highly-opinionated businessman-cum politician, and another avowed
Mnangagwa loyalist, Energy Mutodi, also vented along similar lines,
imploring Zanu PF to hold an extraordinary congress to choose Mugabe’s
successor.

He claimed that Mugabe had become so unpopular in Zanu PF that “99
percent” of the party’s members now wanted him to resign before the
eagerly-anticipated 2018 national elections, as there was allegedly no way
that the nonagenarian could win elections against popular opposition
leader Morgan Tsvangirai.

“Mugabe must retire. What we must be discussing now is how we share power
in Zanu PF post-Mugabe,” he said, adding that it would be very
embarrassing for Mugabe if he stood for election again and lost.

And like Tsenengamu, Mutodi and Mutsvangwa, former Zanu PF chairman for
Mashonaland West province, Temba Mliswa, has also recently suggested that
Mugabe should hand over power to Mnangagwa as the ruling party’s
succession wars burn ever hotter.

“Zanu PF’s solution to the current economic problems is for the president
to step down and Mnangagwa, who is the most senior, to take over,” he said
at the end of last year.