Mnangagwa shoots down Mutsvangwa

via Mnangagwa shoots down Mutsvangwa – DailyNews Live 21 November 2014 by Chengetai Zvauya

HARARE – Divisions within a Zanu PF faction seeking to topple Vice President Joice Mujuru have widened amid revelations that Justice minister Emmerson Mnangagwa has “ruthlessly put down” Chris Mutsvangwa’s demands for war veterans’ greater representation in government.

This emerged at a party parliamentary caucus in Harare on Wednesday, although chief whip Joram Gumbo has declined to comment.

“Don’t involve me in these stories. I have nothing to comment on as I know nothing about it,” said Gumbo.

According to sources, the dramatic and eventful day not only started with Mujuru and Defence minister Sydney Sekeramayi’s surprise appearance, but also degenerated into serious debate when Sanyati member of Parliament Blessed Runesu led the charge for ex-combatants to be rewarded or accommodated with top posts.

“After Runesu’s contribution, Mutsvangwa the Norton legislator, jumped onto the debate and said that his constituency needed more representation in the executive — to which Mnangagwa aggressively responded by asking whether the Deputy Foreign Affairs minister’s group was more ‘special’ than war veterans already in government,” said a source, adding the Zibagwe-Chirumanzu legislator used Mujuru, himself and Sekeramayi as examples of those former fighters in government.

“Apart from violently shooting down the new war veterans’ leader, who is presumably his ally, Mnangagwa made the point that the group must keep its sense of entitlement (to power) and who exactly was behind this hubris,” they added.

While the Midlands supremo also emphasised that it was President Robert Mugabe’s prerogative to appoint people to Cabinet, sources said the “very public spat or divergence of thought” between Mutsvangwa and the leader of government business also pointed out to growing schisms within the group vying for Mujuru’s seat.

According to the Norton legislator, war veterans want the august House to debate the War Veterans’ Bill, which would lay the foundation for catering for their needs socially, politically and economically.

However, Mnangagwa would have none of it as he reprimanded the boisterous group.

At the meeting, the Zanu PF legal honcho had plucked Mujuru from her seat among back-benchers and insisted that she sits on the top table.

Even though, the under-fire VP had insisted she was okay among ordinary MPs, Mnangagwa invited her to the high-table — to which she obliged and later addressed the gathering.

According to sources, Mujuru had not only “gate-crashed the caucus” to avert a no confidence vote in her — possibly at the instigation of Mnangagwa loyalists — but had not been to similar meetings in a very long time.

As such, this triggered theories that she had gotten wind of the plot, thereby scuttling the other faction’s plans or motion.

“There was a serious plan to oust her… and she could have found herself without any support, but the attendance changed all that. Now, it is back to the drawing board as she lived another day to fight,” said another source.