Plans to eject Mujuru-linked MPs underway

via Plans to eject Mujuru-linked MPs underway – DailyNews Live 6 March 2015

HARARE – Plans to eject hordes of Zanu PF legislators allegedly linked to ex-vice president Joice Mujuru are well underway amid indications that some legislators could be hauled before disciplinary committees on March 20.

This comes as the party’s political commissar Savior Kasukuwere and his information counterpart Simon Khaya Moyo have announced an audit of the 52-year-old movement’s structures ahead of a full-scale restructuring.

Following the “bloodless culling” of former Presidential Affairs minister Didymus Mutasa and ex-Hurungwe West MP Temba Mliswa, those in the immediate line of fire also include Murewa North’s Tendai Makunde, Masango Matambanadzo of Kwekwe Central, Goromonzi South’s Petronella Kagonye and Ray Kaukonde.

While some Zanu PF hardliners were hoping “to build on the momentum” created by the expulsion of the ex-party secretary for administration and Mliswa, Mashonaland East provincial governor Joel Matiza is in the spotlight after his alleged role in “a brazen campaign” to remove Makunde and others.

“I went to war as a young man and even got disabled on the battle front, but some of these people (Matiza) who are leading this process to eject us do not even have the credentials I have for fighting for this country,” the Murewa North legislator fumed yesterday.

“By taking my opponent Daniel Garwe into my constituency, are they not confusing the electorate and seeking to derail my current projects, and developmental work in the area? Besides, what have I done to deserve this kind of treatment from party colleagues and when we are supposing to be doing more to help communities?” Makunde asked.

When contacted by the Daily News yesterday, the Harare architect said: “We work with the party (and) if the party’s position is that they are Zanu PF then they will remain Zanu PF, there is nothing we can do independently.”

“But if people are referring to Garwe we were only introducing him back in the party, that he was no longer an outcast, because he had previously stood as an independent. We needed to do that for him to be welcomed by party members as he needs to participate in the party,” Matiza said.

On the other hand, acting Mashonaland East provincial chairman Aeneas Chigwedere also said: “We (Mashonaland East) are part of a national party, so Mashonaland East will not do anything independent for what is being done by the party nationally. If the party decides to take no action against those linked with ‘gamatox”’until 2018… then we will also do that as a province.”

“Mashonaland East is not a special case and there are members of Parliament who have been accused of being ‘gamatox’ in all the provinces, so whatever approach the party will use… it will not exclude Mashonaland East,” the former provincial governor said.

Apart from Kaukonde and Kagonye, those also targeted for purging — under spurious charges — include the Midlands’ Matambanadzo.

For instance, part of the Marondera Central MP’s alleged misdemeanours — also aped by President Robert Mugabe in Victoria Falls last week — was that he was protecting 100-plus white commercial farmers, yet he had left the provincial lands committee in 2008.

Despite the accusations, Kaukonde never sat on the key organ as it was his deputy Steven Chiuraya, who always did. At any rate, the Harare businessman was long succeeded by Chigwedere and Simbaneuta Mudarikwa as resident minister.

In Kagonye’s case, she stands accused of “looting” cooperative funds and yet she could actually be removed without legal interrogation of the issues at hand.

And as the senseless, and factional-driven wars continue to escalate, there is a genuine fear that these purges would disrupt on-going developmental projects and entrench apathy.

In Marondera, for instance, residents told the Daily News that a sewerage project — to benefit Tapfuma School, the Cold Storage Commission and Nyameni communities — was in jeopardy, as council were fearful of accepting Kaukonde’s donation for fear of reprisals.

As it is, people could be chucked out for “neglecting their constituencies” and yet political conditions were not so conducive for work in their areas.

And if Kaukonde falls, it is also understood that opponents have lined up University of Zimbabwe lecturer Charity Manyeruke — a key Kasukuwere ally — or Umaa Institute founder Cleopas Kundiona as his replacement.

Efforts to secure comment from Kagonye, Kaukonde and Matambanadzo were unsuccessful as they were unreachable.

In recent times, it has been reported that as many as 100 legislators have been targeted for removal for their alleged sympathies with Mujuru.

Despite leading a controversial drive to eliminate factional elements in his party, Mugabe conceded in his birthday party interview that the “scourge”of factionalism was far from over in his troubled party.