‘Zanu PF factional wars engineered by Mugabe’

via ‘Zanu PF factional wars engineered by Mugabe’ – DailyNews Live 10 November 2014 by Tendai Kamhungira

HARARE – One of Zimbabwe’s leading political scientists, Eldred Masunungure, says Zanu PF’s deadly factional and succession wars are part of President Robert Mugabe’s “Machiavellian game” to remain in power.

“He is playing games, setting these people up against each other,” Masunungure told the Daily News yesterday.

His observations came as the battle to succeed Mugabe shifted a gear up, with Justice minister Emmerson Mnangagwa’s supporters now going all-out to smear and scandalise Vice President Joice Mujuru’s allies ahead of next month’s Zanu PF elective congress.

Analysts said yesterday, these vicious attacks on Mujuru’s perceived supporters, including party spokesperson Rugare Gumbo and provincial chairpersons, was meant to annihilate the VP’s voting base ahead of next month’s congress.

This way, she would lose her party power base, a development which resonated with First Lady Grace Mugabe’s publicly-stated wishes.

Masunungure said the current waves of votes of no confidence against incumbent provincial chairpersons that had been witnessed over the past few weeks were definitely part of a deliberate strategy by Mnangagwa’s supporters against Mujuru’s sympathisers.

He said the aim of the votes of no confidence was to weaken the vice president’s political position and her chances of taking over from Mugabe.

Temba Mliswa has already fallen victim to the strategy, following his recent suspension as Mashonaland West provincial chairperson, after being accused of disrespecting party leadership, fanning factionalism and getting into “bed with the enemy” — after the Hurungwe West MP was accused of receiving money for development projects in his constituency from the United States Embassy.

Masunungure said: “It’s a comprehensive strategy made to isolate Mujuru via provinces.”

He said the suspensions were meant to ensure that the nomination of candidates to the presidium would weigh heavily against Mujuru, and in favour of the Mnangagwa faction.

Masunungure also said the current Zanu PF fissures were part of Mugabe’s Machiavellian game, where he routinely played one faction against the other for his benefit.

“He is playing games, setting these people up against each other,” he said, adding that there could also be a third force which desired to take over from the nonagenarian leader other than those that were being mentioned the most.

He said when Mugabe appointed Mujuru as the deputy president a decade ago, he had encouraged her to aim higher, making observers wonder what had changed since then.

“Someone else whom we probably do not know may be destined for State House,” he said.

However, another political scientist Charity Manyeruke said the removal of the party’s  provincial chairpersons had nothing to do with factionalism, but went to the core of the party’s other deep-seated problems.

“The way I look at it, it’s not factionalism,” she said, adding that it was normal to have alignments within a political party.

On his part, Gumbo has not been spared in the vicious propaganda hatchet jobs. He has recently been attacked left, right and centre in the State media, and presented as eminently unfit to speak on behalf of the party.

Among many allegations, he has even been accused of bringing on board the shadowy Facebook character Baba Jukwa, who revealed the party’s dirty secrets during the build-up to last year’s disputed elections.

Authorities have since moved to claim that the shadowy character is none other than former Sunday Mail editor Edmund Kudzayi.

But Gumbo has vehemently refuted the claims as lies manufactured by regime change agents aligned to Mnangagwa, who want to topple Mugabe.

Among the provincial chairpersons  who have suffered attacks are Harare boss, Amos Midzi; Mashonaland East provincial chairperson Ray Kaukonde; and Masvingo provincial chairperson Callisto Gwanetsa.

The popular chairperson of the War Veterans Association, Jabulani Sibanda, has also come under severe attack from Mugabe, Mnangagwa and the State media.

Asked if the Zanu PF elective congress would bring an end to Mujuru’s political career, Masunungure said this was difficult to say.

“She was on the up in 2004,” he noted, adding that during that year Mnangagwa was on the downward slide — which meant things could change.

However, he said, what was clear was that the current political situation in Zanu PF was dirtier than that of 2004. In 2004, Mnangagwa was accused of being part of a scheme to topple Mugabe, through what became to be known as the Tsholotsho Declaration.

“It’s not a product of systematic thinking, and that is why it is becoming embarrassing to the perpetrators,” he said in apparent reference to Grace’s direct attack on Mujuru and her call on the VP to resign.

Masunungure said what was going on in Mujuru’s political life was normal, adding she would get another chance to rise again in future.