Thursday, 19 November 2009 22:05
ZANU PF’s main wing led by retired army commander Solomon Mujuru has
crushed a rival faction headed by Emmerson Mnangagwa, leaving the party in
turmoil.
This followed a dramatic battle for power last weekend which is likely
to claim high-profile political casualties ahead of the party’s congress
next month. The vicious political episode could mark the beginning of the
disintegration of the party along its regional and ethnic fault lines.
The Mujuru faction heavily defeated the Mnangagwa camp during the
party’s nominations for a new leadership to be endorsed at congress after a
bruising battle across the country that left political careers damaged or
ruined. There is also bitterness in the party as shown by the brickbats
fired by Manicaland provincial chairman Beziel Nyabadza at a funeral on
Wednesday.
Nyabadza attacked the Zanu PF leadership at the funeral of party
secretary for administration Didymus Mutasa’s son in Rusape, saying
procedures were flouted during nominations and some leaders were now like
“UN permanent security members”, a reference to President Robert Mugabe’s
continuous 32 years at the helm of the party. Zanu PF politburo members are
also attacking each other all over the place after the latest power struggle
and elections.
Inside sources said the Mnangagwa group dismally lost one of the
fiercest battles for control in Zanu PF in recent times after losing
practically in all provinces except Masvingo. The sources said Mnangagwa’s
ticket which included President Robert Mugabe, John Nkomo, Oppah Muchinguri
and Kembo Mohadi was initially projected to secure seven provinces ahead of
Mujuru’s one. Despite losing, Muchinguri is said to be planning to put up a
fight from the floor at congress to oust Joice Mujuru.
The Mujuru group initially wanted to have Mugabe, Joice Mujuru, Naison
Ndlovu and Obert Mpofu for president, co-vice-presidents and party chair,
respectively. There were shifts and changes later due to shock results in
different provinces. The Mujuru faction operated on the basis of a loose
alliance.
As in 2004 during the Tsholotsho affair the Mnangagwa group thought it
was assured of victory until the eleventh hour when the Mujuru faction
played its main card. The Mnangagwa faction ended up with four provinces but
this time it has only won one so far. Mnangagwa’s regional powerbase, the
Midlands province, is yet to vote. It might now vote for the Mujuru
candidates to avoid a political backlash.
Masvingo, which was divided on the day of voting, is now bitter that
Mnangagwa has let it down again by failing to hold his nerve when it
mattered most. In 2004 Mnangagwa’s camp was running away with at least seven
provinces but the Mujuru faction made a decisive intervention and won.
Sources said the Mnangagwa faction had over the years managed to
regroup to challenge the Mujuru team, again after careful planning.
However, in the end only Masvingo, instead of six other provinces
which included three Matabeleland regions, Mashonaland West, Manicaland and
Midlands, voted for Mnangagwa’s line-up. The Midlands is yet to vote.
Sources said Nkomo had struck a deal after talks with Mnangagwa in
which the former was put on the ticket on condition he agreed to surrender
the party chairmanship, a traditionally PF Zapu position after the 1987
Unity Accord, to the latter. Sources said however Mnangagwa did not want to
take a risk like he did in 1999 to go for the chairmanship unless he was
assured to win. Eventually Mnangagwa deferred to Mohadi.
Nkomo aligned himself with the Mnangagwa faction after facing
unexpectedly stiff competition in Matabeleland provinces from senior party
officials Ndlovu, Mpofu, Cain Mathema and Ambrose Mutinhiri.
The sources said Nkomo had also indicated to Mutasa the position of
chairman was not in the Unity Accord and therefore open to contest as in
1999 and 2004. This led to Mutasa throwing his hat into the ring. But Nkomo
could not assure Mutasa of support because of his deal with Mnangagwa.
Mutasa then entered the race on the strength of his alliance with the Mujuru
faction before it ditched him midstream.
The Mujuru group also dumped Ndlovu and Mpofu after their defeat in
Matabeleland South and Bulawayo.
They then shifted support to Nkomo first and then Simon Khaya Moyo.
Moyo beat Mutasa after being backed by the Mujuru faction which even
reversed its nomination of Mutasa in Mashonaland Central in his favour.
Nkomo and Moyo were the official PF Zapu candidates nominated by their
caucus which still exists inside Zanu PF.
Sources said if the Mnangagwa team won, Mnangagwa was expected to then
reoccupy the position of secretary for administration while preparing for an
assault on the presidency. The position was supposed to be his springboard
to power whenever Mugabe leaves through retirement or natural causes.
However, the plan started collapsing after one of Mnangagwa’s
candidates, Mohadi, lost to Moyo in Matabeleland South. Mohadi further lost
in Matabeleland North and Bulawayo, although Nkomo won in those provinces.
Matabeleland North initially refused to vote for Nkomo and only did so
after it became obvious he was inevitably winning. Mohadi only won in
Masvingo but later withdrew after the Mnangwa faction was trounced.
Written By: Dumisani Muleya The Independent ZA
so much contradiction in this article.
Taura hako hameno. People seem to miss the point that zanu pf makes . Zanu pf has a tactical propaganda against its opponents. Since time immemorial we have been told of these so called factions and splits which never materialise. Do you know that zanu pf starts all these rumours just to throw the opposition off balance. At one time we were told Mugabe is now collapsing due to old age and that he would soon be dead. This is all to get the hopes of the MDC up and when you least expect it, they get a lethal blow. Dont be suprised that after the congress there will be no murmurs of disapproval from anyone. Its all planned by the junta. Why do you think Jonso is quiet? He is scheming at the background and is probably responsible for all these rumours. Unfortunately this gets the attention of the MDC who are left watching in amusement at the ‘power games’ in Zanu pf instead of concerntrating on the issue at hand. How these boys are tricked by petty issues beats me. Mugabe is going nowhere and zanu pf is not disintergrating, make your plans with that in mind. Mugabe and his schemas will lead you up a garden path if you are not carefull.
Making me believe that a nobody like Basil Nyabadza can utter such words as attributed to him at Mutasa’s son’s funeral really beats me. Mugabe will have him thrown into oblivion with just a simple instruction.Musanyeberwe veduwee.zanu chiwororo!!!
This article is so vague. I cant see the tail from the head.
Oh Abel please. I know you hate MDC but surely you can do better than this. You say there are no divisions in ZANU(PF) surely? Remember how Jonathan Moyo had to use public transport from a Bulawayo hotel when he was fired by fax from Harare while booked at the hotel and the CIO’s demanded car keys , celphones etc that belonged to Mugabe’s ZANU(PF)? What caused Dinyane my friend. Its factionalism. I laughed when you said the aim is to please MDC..hahaha. Next, you seem to be one of the few people who credit Jonathan Moyo to be intelligent. You know for some of us who are Professors, Jonathan Moyo is a laughing matter. How can you say Jonathan Moyo is scheming yet he failed to scheme his own Ph.D and has to resort to lying to the media about being a professor? Just write to Jonathan Moyo and ask him to explain who promoted him to become a professor and you will find him telling you that its not him who created the title but the media. thats what he said to me in an e-mail I challenged him because I worked at UZ at the same time he was a lecturer. He has no publications to even dream being a senior lecturer at a credible University in Botswana, South Africa or Namibia where standards are still comparable.
So Jonathan Moyo cannot scheme anything because he is dull. We can only credit him for being quarellsome yes. But that doesn’t mean intelligence.
Abel ZANU(PF) is doomed. To think that Mugabe will continue being in power is being too religious. A religious man can believe anything and we cant argue with a religious belief. We just feel pity. That Mugabe falls once in a while is documented. During the time of Jonathan Moyo as spin doctor he was forced to downplay when Mugabe dropped in Egypt. And people have a right to hope that one dropping leads to another and that in the end he may drop dead. That Mugabe is prolonging his life by getting good treatment and drugs from Chinese and others should not sway us from the fact that he is now too old to be alive in the next 5 years that he is being elected back as leader of ZANU(PF). And to MDC-T this should be sweet news because they beat him 3 times now and he has to resort to coups. This time SADC is watching. Tsvangirai was invited by Gaddafi for the first time which means no one buys Mugabe’s nonsense anymore. Gone are the days when Africans where fooled by ZANU(PF) that MDC-T stands for imperialists and that ZANU(PF) stands for the people. AU and SADC now know who was behind Murambatsvina, they now know who murdered more than 20 000 Ndebeles, they now know who murdered and raped in 2008. They chucked off Mbeki and in comes Zuma. Have you heard the Herald talking about Cde Zuma these days? Hahaha.
Sheppy, I like the way you mention facts which are irrelevant to the topic under discussion which makes me wonder what PHD you have. Must be from the same college that gave Hunzvi his Doctor’s degree, chuckle!!!!
Love him or hate him, Jonathan Moyo is a schema and he knows his political science. He know especially African politics which is why you MDC guys hate him so much. He single handedly massacred the opposition in Zimbabwe and saved Zanu pf’s bacon after the referendum otherwise who knows, the puppets would have been in power that.
As for Mugabe dropping dead, well mate I do hope you save yourself the high BP by getting used to the fact that the supreme leader is there to stay. He is very healthy and you eating the GMOs in foreign land, dont be suprised to drop dead before him.
You say the AU and SADC now know who was behind Gukurahundi and Murambatsvina, well if they did not know that up to now then they are worse morons than I thought.FYI SA gvt was involved in the gukurahundi massacres and the British actually blessed it because Nkomo wanted to do in 1980 what Mugabe did in 2000 so they saw that as a way of getting rid of a hardliner. White farmers were being killed in Matland and so they realised that in trying to get his one party state, Mugabe would do their dirty work for them which is why he was their darling right up to the late 90s.
Despite the fake hope you are seeing from African countries habana anoti bufu, you will spend the next decade the same way you spent the last decade, hoping and seeing hope where it is not. Robert Gabriel Mugabe, First secretary of Zanu pf,President of the republic of Zimbabwe,Chancellor of all universities and above all commander in chief of the armed forces is going nowhere, I advise you learn to live with that and if you were planning on leaving your daytime job and joining politics Sheppy, I advise you hold your horses. Its advisable to do what you were trained to do.
You can rely on the man who took a shower to avoid AIDS for as long as you want, when it comes to action you will see that there is no time for singing Mshini wami. This is serious business.
I like you entusiasm Abel. If you were a supporter of footbal, then you would support a team at the bottom of the league dreaming things shall change. I think you choose not to want to accept the reality that Mugabe is gone both age wise and in terms of political support. If you believe what Jonathan Moyo said, then you should be the first to belive what he told the Sunday Mail after he was officially re-adminted (whatever that mearnt) that “ZANU(PF) is politically dead”. These are the words of your schemer Jonathan Moyo. He then said ZANU(PF) needs to wake up from death the “Lazarus” way. So if Jonathan Moyo says ZANU(PF) is politically dead and you are his admirer, then you have self contradiction instincts because you should then not say Mugabe is here for ever bla bla bla. What Jonathan Moyo observed is that ZANU(PF) is in power because of the military coup which they plotted against an MDC government. What you dont know is that SADC had accepted that there was a military coup in Zimbabwe. What Mbeki wanted to do was to mix the coup plotters with the civilians leaders which SADC and AU are now realizing that its impossible. So SADC has since absolved MDC-T of the blame game of refusing to be coopted in the government because the coup leaders have the guts to refuse to share power. Thats what is pissing Zuma off. And if you under-estimate Mshin Wami, watch this space. Lets wait for the 30 days and Abel you will be singing a different song. If you argue, you ask George Charamba. Now very disciplined. Thats the power of Mshin Wami. Dont ever think that Charamba does not want to do what he was doing, commenting everyday and attacking MDC-T. He was told to shape up or ship out and he decided to shape up.
So I dont know why Abel you give a lot of praise to a ZANU(PF) institution which is crumbling on itself. Did you follow up the ZANU(PF) Harare Province movie recently? What I only like is that at least there is no single Comic Ali. We have Abel Ali also raising the victory flag when soldiers are falling. “Lalapanzi madoda!” hahaha
Time will tellSheppy. I like the way you comment as if you will be lying under the table where the politicians will be discussing. It has been ten years with you speculating like this. 30 days will come up and you will start saying new statements like Mugabe has staged a coup again. Usadheerere matibhili muface. His worst fear is old age not ana Mshini wami and Morgan the puppet like you say. You think if he was worried he would spend time going to Rome on visits? He knows there is nothing to worry about as he has ana mainini Morgan as opponents.
Usaone ana Charamba kunyarara ukati kupusa. Robert has held back his dogs in preparation for the kill. Not ana Chamisa who talk at the slight fart of a neighbor. Its strategic.We will here what Zuma says after tomorrow when the 15 days are up.Lalapanzi madhodha Sheppy.
Ana Abel hahahaha!!! Asingazive kuti ZANU PF has factions ndiani ko?? Saka Cholocho debacle yakaitikira mahara??? The only reason why they don’t come to the surface is because the Zanoids realise that they have to put up a brave face in public. And also that Mugabe, who is actually the most neutral person in Zanu, is holding things together. Just wait until Mudhara is gone, then you will see what we meant
Bhora, events on the ground indicate that it is actually MDC which broke into two, MDC-T and MDC-M ( WHich later olso broke into MDC-Mutambara and MDC-Sikhala)
As far as I can see there is still one Zanu pf.Off course I cant stop you from political masturbation my chief. It keeps you entertained.
Abel, don’t be so foolish to deny the Zanu pf factionalism. Be reminded of Mugabe recently admitting this. Do you think the appointment of Mugabe to run for presidency of the party is a sign that they like Mugabe. No, it’s only that he is a unifying force. He(Mugabe) wants to take a break but unfortunately he has no choice as his party is sharply divided. But this time it is not going to save the party come elections. He is on his way out. And in is Mogiza.