Mutsvangwa raps Mugabe

Source: Mutsvangwa raps Mugabe – DailyNews Live January 9, 2017

Mugove Tafirenyika

HARARE – Defiant Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans Association
(ZNLWVA) chairperson, Christopher Mutsvangwa, has escalated his savage
assault on President Robert Mugabe, saying yesterday the increasingly
frail nonagenarian was willingly being led astray by “compulsive plotters”
in the warring Zanu PF.

This comes as Africa Confidential, the UK-domiciled specialist publication
on Africa, reported at the weekend that Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa
was more and more taking control of government business, with Mugabe
allegedly retreating to a more ceremonial role.

Speaking to the Daily News yesterday, in a development that is likely to
put Mnangagwa even more at odds with his Zanu PF foes, Mutsvangwa – an
avowed supporter of the VP – claimed that Mugabe was unwisely

“taking instructions” from alleged Generation 40 (G40) kingpins such as
Higher Education minister Jonathan Moyo.

“Now he (Moyo) has morphed into a compliance officer of a nebulous agenda
of a self-styled ideology and chief-intimidating agent on behalf of a
rudderless State House,” Mutsvangwa, who along with his ZNLWVA executive,
has been open about his wish to have Mnangagwa succeed Mugabe, said.

The former Cabinet minister went on to claim, once again, that Moyo was “a
war deserter who has no capacity to score a political victory against
battle-hardened former freedom fighters”.

“As a war veteran who witnessed so much during the struggle, I dismiss
this irregular political usurpation by a wartime deserter-turned spy. Let
the coward Jonso (Moyo) know that he is incapable of scaring anyone, let
alone battle-hardened war veterans,” Mutsvangwa said.

He also claimed that after Moyo had been expelled from Zanu PF, following
what came to be known as the Tsholotsho Declaration in 2004, the voluble
Tsholotsho North legislator had been “rehabilitated to State House under
unclear circumstances”, allegedly through the efforts of the revered late
liberation struggle icon, General Solomon Mujuru.

“With the proverbial nine lives of a cat, Jonso bounced back in 2013 to
his unexplained and ongoing preponderant influence at State House,”
Mutsvangwa said.

He also went on to claim that Moyo had “ambitions to succeed Mugabe”,
colourfully describing the minister as “viscerally cantankerous”.

“Compulsive plotting is a hallmark of his (Moyo’s) DNA. This, engendered
by an obsessive craving for the top dog position … today he rants all
over the show in a typical manner to a mad dog choked with mustard,” the
war veterans leader with a penchant for complex diction said.

Zanu PF insiders have consistently told the Daily News that underlying the
former liberation movement’s deadly and seemingly unstoppable tribal and
factional wars is its unresolved succession question, with the G40 faction
apparently doing everything possible to torpedo Mnangagwa’s mooted
presidential ambitions.

It is in this vein that the Midlands godfather was last week forced to
publicly disown Mutsvangwa and other former party cadres who are publicly
backing his ascendancy to the highest office in the land.

However, this did not stop Mutsvangwa and other disaffected Zanu PF
bigwigs from attending the burial of Peter Chanetsa at Heroes Acre in
Harare on Saturday, with many of these “rebels” being accepted into the
VIP tent, at a time Mugabe is away on holiday.

Although the occasion was a State and not Zanu PF function, which meant
that anyone could attend it if they wished to do so, the rebels’ surprise
presence in the VIP tent set tongues waging, given that this was the first
time they were attending a State function since their expulsion from Zanu
PF last year.

“I was surprised to see those two (Mutsvangawa and Temba Mliswa) being
pampered in the VIP tent. They are well-known Ngwena (Mnangagwa’s)
supporters.

“Lacoste (the Zanu PF faction backing Mnangagwa’s alleged bid to succeed
Mugabe) took advantage of Gushungo’s (Mugabe’s) absence to play its
sucessionist games. This would never happen if the president was around,”
a party official linked to the G40 group moaned.

Political analyst Eldred Masunungure said the move by Mnangagwa’s allies
to attend Chanetsa’s burial could turn out to be important ammunition to
the VP’s party rivals.

“The VP is known to be a shrewd politician, but not as much as his boss,
hence the war veterans’ attendance to listen to him when they have all
along been boycotting Mugabe.

“This can be used as ammunition by his rivals to say his recent
condemnation of Mutsvangwa and his group is a smokescreen meant to mask
their deep-lying relationship,” Masunungure said.

Meanwhile, Africa Confidential, the well-regarded UK publication, said at
the weekend that Mnangagwa was increasingly taking over the reins from
Mugabe.

The fortnightly also said Zanu PF’s hopes of remaining in power relied on
its hope that opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai and Zimbabwe People
First leader Joice Mujuru won’t agree to work together next year, and that
Mnangagwa would provide a stable transition for the country post-Mugabe.

“The President has tried to prevent Mnangagwa from prevailing in the
faction-fighting (Zanu PF’s), carrying out various manoeuvres to maintain
a balance between the rivals, but the vice-president has independent
support from the securocrats of the army and police.

“So far, Mnangagwa has survived. His support comes largely from the
military, which has been Mugabe’s political backbone and from war
veterans, who have publicly demanded that he should succeed the president.

“The leaders of liberation war veterans were sacked from the party last
year but they remain influential, particularly in its rural structures,
which have always been key to Mugabe’s grip on power. The war veterans
would use 2017 to `mobilise for Ngwena’ (Mnangagwa),” Africa Confidential
said.

“Mugabe has indicated his discomfort at the military’s role in propping up
Mnangagwa, who has been endorsed by Harare’s key ally, China.

“There was pressure from the G40 to sack the army generals but Mugabe has
admitted that he has kept them on due to a `gentlemen’s agreement’ after
they saved him from defeat in 2008.

“The military, therefore, will play a major part in the succession. They
also dominate electoral bodies and other key institutions, making them
potentially important in the management of national elections,” it added.