No one in Zanu PF has the guts to openly challenge or confront President Robert Mugabe and tell him it is time he resigned, political analysts said on Thursday.
Analysts said the reported plot to oust President Mugabe from the helm of the party during the forthcoming annual conference in Bulawayo was just a wishful thinking because everyone was afraid of the 87-year-old Zanu PF strongman.
They said the former guerrilla leader enjoyed unfettered support of the country’s security organs, making it impossible for him to be challenged easily.
“It has never, it will not and shall never happen,” said Pedzisayi Ruhanya, a doctoral candidate in Media and Communication Studies at Westminster University in London.
There is nobody in Zanu PF who has the political stamina to confront President Mugabe openly.
That’s why they were all running to the US Embassy to talk about his leadership style because they can’t do it openly. They are monumental political cowards.
“(President) Mugabe will prevail (in Bulawayo) and the said opponents will be the first to move a motion endorsing him.”
Political analyst Brian Ngwenya said it was now too common to have discerning voices within Zanu PF’s top echelons when their party’s annual conference was around the corner, but such voices were either suppressed or they were not loud enough to be heard.
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“The only thing we are going to hear is President Mugabe has been endorsed unanimously by all the ten party provinces,” Ngwenya said.
“I do not see the discerning voices being able to stand up and unite against President Mugabe.”
Hopewell Gumbo, a social commentator, said while Zanu PF was torn apart by factionalism it would be a very difficult and daring adventure for any party member to use these faction fights to dislodge President Mugabe at the conference.
“There are certainly many progressive Zanu PF members who wish President Mugabe departs from his position, but it will be a very difficult and daring adventure for any Zanu PF member to use these factional fights to dislodge him at the congress,” Gumbo said. “Similar attempts have been mulled before, but have been ruthlessly crushed.”
Former student leader Blessing Vava agrees: “It won’t be possible to block (President) Mugabe. No one has the capacity or the guts to challenge him. They all fear him and they cannot challenge him openly.”
Media reports suggested this week there was a plot to oust President Mugabe from the helm of the party during the annual conference.
Didymus Mutasa, the Zanu PF politburo secretary for administration, told NewsDay the party was aware of individuals clamouring for President Mugabe’s ouster, but declared the conference would not give anyone any opportunity to do such a thing.
President Mugabe was aware of the plot to unseat him, but Mutasa said the party leader was not bothered because “it’s rubbish, rubbish, rubbish”.
He said the Zanu PF chairman Simon Khaya Moyo who would be in control of proceedings during the conference, would not allow discussions to deviate from prepared agenda.
