Source: Sandi fights fire with fire – DailyNews Live
Jeffrey Muvundusi and Fungi Kwaramba 24 March 2017
HARARE – Zanu PF women’s league deputy secretary, Eunice Sandi Moyo,
yesterday thumbed her nose at her fellow ruling party bigwigs who are
pushing for her summary expulsion from the strife-torn former liberation
movement.
Addressing a hastily-arranged press conference yesterday, the emotional
Bulawayo Provincial Affairs minister vowed that she would only resign or
leave the warring ruling party at the express insistence of President
Robert Mugabe who had appointed her as a minister and Zanu PF politburo
member.
Party insiders told the Daily News last night that Sandi Moyo’s emphatic
declaration that she was going nowhere had “set the stage for a bruising
battle with her rivals in both the women’s league and the party
generally”, who had accused her of disrespecting First Lady Grace Mugabe.
This comes after she and vocal women’s league treasurer Sarah Mahoka were
on Wednesday rocked by countrywide demonstrations against them by irate
party members, amid claims that the two women – once seen as close allies
of Grace – were now undermining the influential first lady, in addition to
facing charges that they also allegedly embezzled party funds.
The Hurungwe East legislator is also famed for having publicly dressed
down Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa in front of Mugabe last year.
“What you saw yesterday (Wednesday’s demos), I cannot answer for because I
have not been told where this is emanating from . . . it shows that there
is somebody somewhere who wants to create bad blood between me and the
first lady,” Sandi Moyo said yesterday.
“Someone is trying to create a rift between me and the first lady, but I
want to tell that person that I am not moved at all. If the president
still wants me in office, I will continue with my job. I will focus on
Bulawayo until the president says go and rest,” she said.
“Why should I contest the first lady. Why? I am the one who was going with
her around, so I can’t contest her. It’s not possible. I am 70 years old
and I don’t have a reason to fight for any further position. I am okay
with my position,” the visibly rattled Sandi Moyo said.
“Is it really possible (to remove the first lady) . . . those are very
impossible things even if I wished to do so. The people of Bulawayo
respect the first lady so much and I can never go against them even if I
wished to do so,” the Provincial Affairs minister said.
“So, anybody who has got that dream, who wants to use that to get rid of
me, it’s his or her luck. The owner of that project (of removing her) is
the one who should be worried about funding and other stuff, not me,”
Sandi Moyo added.
While she would not name who was behind the demonstrations, she said it
was clear “someone, somewhere” wanted her gone.
Zanu PF insiders told the Daily News yesterday that Wednesday’s stunning
development was “very significant” as it was likely to have serious
ramifications in the party’s succession brawls which have gone a notch
higher ever since Mugabe’s 93rd birthday interview with the ZBC, in which
the nonagenarian appeared to slam the door shut on ambitious party bigwigs
angling to succeed him.
The key women’s league is closely linked to a party faction going by the
name Generation 40 (G40), and which is rabidly opposed to Mnangagwa
succeeding Mugabe.
In February last year, Mahoka, brazenly heckled Mnangagwa – calling the
stunned VP in front of Mugabe and other bigwigs a lame duck.
The under-fire women’s league treasurer and Sandi Moyo were also among a
group of vocal members who have been aggressively pushing for the revival
of the debate about the need for a woman to become one of Zanu PF’s two
vice presidents.
Their calls for a woman to be elevated to become one of Zanu PF’s two VPs
was seen as directed against Mnangagwa, as the other current VP,
Phelekezela Mphoko’s appointment was part of the conditions of the
country’s unity accord which resulted in the post of the second VP being
reserved for senior former Zapu officials.
Political analysts have also told the Daily News that Wednesday’s
surprising demos showed that there were now major rifts within the
powerful women’s league, which has thus far been fighting spiritedly to
force Mugabe to re-appoint a woman in the presidency.
Local think tank, the Zimbabwe Democracy Institute (ZDI), warned in a
recent paper that Mugabe was now increasingly failing to hold Zanu PF
together, as evidenced by the party’s worsening mindless bloodletting.
“The casual ingredient in the disintegration of hegemonic parties such as
Zanu PF which could possibly lead to its electoral loss is not primarily
predicted on external opposition from other political parties or civil
society and international pressure, but internal fissures.
“It now appears that every organ of Zanu PF is in turmoil . . . the
prevailing fragmentation, especially the fights in the women and youth
leagues threaten the heart and soul of Zanu PF,” ZDI said.
With some provinces such as Masvingo recently defying Mugabe openly, the
think-tank said the worsening divisions in the ruling party had now also
extended to the State and the military – the latter for long the bulwark
of Zanu PF’s hegemonic rule.
“Furthermore and fundamentally, due to State-party conflation, the discord
in Zanu PF has affected external organs that have always been the
shock-troopers of Zanu PF such as the State bureaucracy, the military and
coercive apparatus of the State, including war veterans and party youth
militia.
“The hostilities, contradictions and fragmentation in the security
apparatus of the State, mainly around the issue of succession coupled with
the incapacity of the centre to hold, are Zanu PF litmus tests and
principal drivers to its fragmentation, which could lead to possible
electoral loss.
“It can be argued that Zanu PF was stronger in 2008 even though it lost
the general election then, compared to its current state,” ZDI added.
Analysts have previously said Mugabe’s failure to resolve Zanu PF’s
succession riddle is fuelling the party’s deadly infighting, which is
devouring the former liberation movement.
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
choice.
The ruling party’s two major factions have escalated their fights ever
since Mugabe’s traditional birthday interview last month in which he
rubbished all his lieutenants’ leadership credentials and their chances of
succeeding him.
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