Zanu PF self-destructs: Analysts

via Zanu PF self-destructs: Analysts – DailyNews Live 13 DECEMBER 2014

HARARE – President Robert Mugabe’s Zanu PF is self-destructing after firing 90 percent of its leaders purely on reasons not related to policy, analysts have said.

The majority of liberation icons have been pushed out, accused of plotting against Mugabe.

These sentiments were aired on Thursday night during a policy dialogue forum at Sapes Trust in Harare.

The discussion was held under the topic: ‘‘Review of 2014 and looking into 2015, post mortem of the Zanu PF congress and its implications.’’

This comes after President Robert Mugabe purged at least 90 percent of officials linked to axed Vice President Joice Mujuru, whom he has accused of plotting to assassinate him.

Mujuru was replaced by Mugabe’s blue-eyed boy and long touted heir apparent Justice minister Emmerson Mnangagwa.

Little-known Ambassador Phelekezela Mphoko was also appointed the party’s second vice president in line with the 1987 unity accord. He replaced the late John Nkomo.

And eight Cabinet ministers took oath of office at State House yesterday.

Analysts say recent developments in the party are a sign the liberation movement was self-destructing and that it had reached the end of its processes.

Stephen Chan, a professor of world politics at the School of Oriental and African Stdues at the University of London, who was a panellist at Sapes said there was not a shred of debate among the contenders as to what policy was going to benefit Zimbabwe in the future.

“It seemed to us to be power plays, personality plays and it was not to do with policy, it was not to do with governance, it was not to do with the future of the country in a technocratic sense and what will benefit the average Zimbabwean citizen,” he said.

“What we are most concerned about is not the split in the ruling party but a split within the liberation movement generation.

“In other words this is not a debate on who fought within the liberation and who did not.”

He said those casting aspersions on Mujuru’s liberation war credentials were out order, saying “Madam Mujuru was a genuine heroine in the liberation struggle.”

“I was here as part of the Commonwealth observer group in 1980 as this country made a transition to independence and monitored that very closely,” Chan said.

He said that he had spoken to commanders and participants who swore to Mujuru’s illustrious contribution to the struggle.

“No one can contradict these stories of her heroism,” he said.

“Yet now it is this liberation generation that is eating one another and that is going to present a problem of the credentials of the party’s base upon which the party wishes to take in the future.

“If you are now stabbing the backs and cutting the throats of other cadres, what is the moral back bone of the party?

“If there is no policy debate, what is the future that you hold for the  party and for the citizens of this country?”

Ibbo Mandaza, chairman of the Sapes Trust, said Zanu PF had ceased to exist as a party in 1995 because of that it lost its social base.

He said the revolutionary party has relied on the State for survival.