Stop it: Mugabe

via Stop it: Mugabe – DailyNews Live 16 July 2015 by Darius Mutamba and Fungi Kwaramba

HARARE – President Robert Mugabe once again openly admitted at Zanu PF’s politburo meeting in Harare yesterday that his party was wracked by debilitating factional and succession wars, imploring his ambitious underlings to focus more on fixing the country’s comatose economy, which observers say is a result of his government’s misrule and ineptitude.

Addressing the media last night during the course of the long politburo meeting, Zanu PF secretary for administration, Ignatius Chombo, also sought to lump part of the blame for the ruling party’s vicious infighting on the media, which he accused of fanning the tumultuous wars in the former liberation movement.

“He (Mugabe) emphasised the need for unity, harmony, loyalty and ideological clarity on the part of the senior leadership of the party. Leaders were encouraged to ensure that the party was structurally strong and vibrant, and that effective mobilisation strategies were put in place,” Chombo said.

Yesteday’s politburo meeting took place as Zanu PF’s structures continue to wallow in a shambolic state, with ongoing efforts to turn the situation around by the party’s self-styled “political thug”, its commissar Saviour Kasukuwere, seemingly worsening matters — amid accusations that the party’s Young Turks, the Generation 40 camp, is abusing the process to weaken Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s camp.

Mugabe recently told his party’s Youth League what the Daily News has consistently and accurately written about over the past six months, that vicious infighting continues to disembowel Zanu PF and that vice presidents Mnangagwa and Phelekezela Mphoko are locked in a nasty succession struggle.

In that rare candid address, the nonagenarian said openly that he had received intelligence to the effect that the party was polarising around Mnangagwa and Mphoko, adding ominously that people who were pushing for either of the two men to succeed him needed to stop doing so forthwith.

But with age no longer on his side, Zanu PF hardliners continue to position themselves to succeed him and are locked in a bitter battle for ascendancy that is getting increasingly nastier and more chaotic — and in the process exacerbating the country’s economic woes that are characterised by deflation, high unemployment and industrial contraction.

So bad has the situation become that Zimbabwe has effectively become a vendor nation, with the country recently being certified officially as the second worst performing economy in the world.

But although “everything that can go wrong has since gone wrong”, as critics say, Chombo said yesterday that Mugabe had surprisingly given his ministers — collectively derided by the opposition as a deadwood Cabinet — a vote of confidence.

“The president and first secretary Cde Robert Mugabe gave a synopsis on the state of the party in the political context, as well as from a government perspective. In this regard he expressed his confidence in the leadership team and its capacity to deliver the aspirations of the people of Zimbabwe.

“Concerns were raised and strategies discussed with regard to improve service delivery across all sectors of our economy.

“Members of the politburo and those in government were exalted to be vigilant to realise aspirations of the people, including the creation of clean and organised environment in cities, good housing and the creation of employment opportunities for the youths,” Chombo said.

The newly-appointed Home Affairs minister, could however not elaborate whether the issue of vendors was discussed, choosing to say instead that the politburo only “discusses policy issues”.

Other issues that were discussed in the lengthy politburo meeting included the party’s recent pyrrhic victory in the June 10 by-elections that were boycotted by major political players citing an uneven playing field.

Interestingly for political observers, Kasukuwere — who is reportedly locked in mortal combat with the Mnangagwa camp and appears to be working closely with controversial but influential First Lady Grace Mugabe — received kudos from Mugabe for taking the party to an emphatic victory in the by-elections.

Meanwhile, Charles Tawengwa — who was previously linked to ousted Vice President Joice Mujuru — was appointed the acting chairperson for Harare province, as more allies of the widowed ex-VP bounce back into the political limelight.

A fortnight ago, Mugabe appointed Nyasha Chikwinya and Ambrose Mutinhiri to the positions of ministers of Women Affairs and Mashonaland East province respectively, in a move that observers said was an indication of a major paradigm shift as the ever wily strongman craftily keeps his ambitious would-be successors at bay.