Zanu PF faction wants Mugabe out, Gumbo

via Zanu PF faction wants Mugabe out, Gumbo 01 September 2014

A TOP Zanu PF official has sensationally accused a rival faction of engaging in the treacherous enterprises of forcing regime change in the country, a charge the ruling party has over the years levelled at the Morgan Tsvangirai-led opposition.

Zanu PF has successfully pilloried Tsvangirai as a runner for former coloniser Britain which, according to President Robert Mugabe, is keen to force regime change in Harare and, hopefully, reverse controversial programmes such as the land reform and indigenisation of foreign companies.

But the party’s spokesman, Rugare Gumbo, claimed Monday that senior officials in Mugabe’s own Zanu PF were now trying to topple the veteran leader who turned 90 this year.

“We have always known that there is a regime change agenda in place, only this time it is being pushed by our own people under the guise of loving President Mugabe,” Gumbo said in a statement.

Zanu PF has traditionally managed to put internal divisions aside and unite in the face of a strong external threat but with Tsvangirai gravely weakened after last year’s crushing election defeat and his MDC-T effectively split in two the ruling party has now turned on itself.

Bitter factional fights over the succession of Mugabe – even as he insists he is not going anywhere until 2018, at least – have worsened in recent days in the lead-up to the party’s elective congress in December.

A faction rallying behind Vice-President Joice Mujuru has been on the back-foot, accused of running down the party as the parlous state of finances was exposed during the women and youth conferences and, more significantly, trying to block Mugabe’s wife Grace from taking up a seat in the politburo.

But Gumbo, a Mujuru loyalist, upped the stakes Monday by effectively claiming the rival group backing Justice Minister Emmerson Mnangagwa was working on regime change while feigning public enthusiasm for Mugabe as the country’s life president.

Challenged by the Herald to name the officials, Gumbo refused, pointedly saying: “No I am not going to name them.”

However, he could not have been referring to members of his own faction.

Meanwhile, returning from a trip to China on Sunday, Mugabe hit out at attempts to block his wife, telling officials in Harare province opposed to Grace joining party structures there that they did not own the country’s capital.

“I want to hear why she should leave Harare, going where? I would also want to know where the emperor of Harare got his powers from.”

Mugabe said he would call a politburo meeting this week to address the divisions but Gumbo warned the 90-year-old leader that some of his lieutenants where diverting his attention from pressing economic challenges in order to weaken his chances of re-election in 2018.

The Zanu PF leader has welcomed calls by the youth and women’s sections of the party to run for re-election in 2018, disappointing his impatient would-be successors.

“Zanu-PF won a historic five-year-mandate to address critical matters of national interest and that is what we should all focus on,” said Gumbo.

“Anyone who misdirects their focus to dwell on petty, narrow and immature politics is not only showing disrespect to President Mugabe who is genuinely determined to improve the welfare of the people — but is on the wrong side of history and should be ashamed of himself or herself.”