I funded Zanu PF, broken Shamu pleads

via I funded Zanu PF, broken Shamu pleads 07/12/2014

SACKED Zanu PF commissariat secretary and ICTs minister Webter Shamu cut a sorry sight at the Zanu PF congress last week as he contemplated becoming an ordinary party member with his cabinet post also uncertain.

Shamu, understood to be the top official accused by Grace Mugabe of importing from China Zanu PF regalia for resale to party supporters when it should be dished out for free, is one of the top officials who failed to make into the party’s central committee.

The development put paid to what hopes he might have entertained of reappointment to the politburo this week.

And in a futile bid to rescue his floundering political fortunes, Shamu claimed in a report to President Robert Mugabe at the congress that he had funded the party from his own pocket.

“The Commissariat department only received $7,000 from the party’s department of finance for the whole period of (the last) five years and nothing more,” reads Shamu’s report which was made available to NewZimbabwe.com.

“All the programmes that were undertaken by the commissariat department during the period under review were either funded through individual efforts (myself) or well-wishers and affiliates.”

Shamu said he contributed $5,000 towards the renovation of Mugabe’s office at the Zanu PF headquarters.

“The (commissariat) department also sourced funding for the renovation of vice president’s and the secretary for administration’s offices as well as the ongoing face-lifting of the outside grounds at the party HQ,” added Shamu.

The minister’s troubles stem from his alleged links to a faction aligned to vice president Joice Mujuru who is accused of trying to “illegally” force the 90-year-old Mugabe out of office.

Mujuru is also accused of plotting to assassinate the veteran leader in the event he refused step down, with the alleged coup said to have been set for implementation at last week’s national congress.

The vice president is also set to lose her posts in both the party and the government and stayed away from the congress all week where she was further subjected to attacks by Mugabe and his wife.