Robert Mugabe is due to address a potentially stormy politburo meeting today where he is expected to crack the whip in a desperate bid to save his faction-ridden Zanu PF party from further division.
REPORT BY EVERSON MUSHAVA
The meeting follows reports that top party officials from Manicaland province allegedly burnt the midnight candle last Friday drafting a petition to Mugabe to rein in party secretary for administration Didymus Mutasa.
Zanu PF spokesperson Rugare Gumbo confirmed today’s meeting, but said he was not yet aware of the agenda.
“Yes, we (the politburo) are meeting on Thursday. I don’t know the agenda yet,” Gumbo said.
He, however, said he could not rule out the possibility of the Manicaland power wrangles spilling into the politburo meeting.
“We might have to meet first as a party. But since I don’t have the agenda, I cannot confirm the issue will be discussed. But I cannot also rule out that it might be discussed,” he said.
Mugabe was last week forced to postpone the meeting, choosing to meet the party’s influential commissariat department to fine-tune the party’s campaign strategy.
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Sources told NewsDay Mugabe was determined to deal with the divisions in Manicaland once and for all.
They said the veteran leader was aware that continued internal bickering could seal his political grave in the MDC-T leader Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s home province.
Officials from Manicaland accused Mutasa of causing divisions in the party and have warned that if his behaviour goes unchecked, the party would be doomed.
Zanu PF won only six out of 26 parliamentary seats in the province in the 2008 elections.
Sources said the issue was likely to cause further divisions amid revelations other provinces, particularly Matabeleland, were throwing their weight behind the petitioners.
“Most of the party officials in Matabeleland feel that Mutasa is a threat to both Simon Khaya Moyo (party national chairman) and Obert Mpofu (Mines minister) for the post of Vice-President,” a party insider said yesterday.
The two are considered front runners to succeed the late Vice-President John Nkomo, who died in January.
This would be in conformity with the 1987 Unity Accord between Zanu PF and PF Zapu which requires that the second VP has to come from the former PF Zapu.
Mutasa is believed to be eyeing that post too.
He has not made his ambitions secret and told NewsDay in an interview that, like any other politician, he had political ambitions to rise to the very top. “There is nothing wrong in me having political ambitions,” Mutasa said. “Every politician has an ambition, but it should be done constitutionally, not in the middle of the night. If they had issues with me, why couldn’t they propose an agenda item on the co-ordinating committee meeting and tell me in the face than stabbing me in the back? This is what causes divisions.”
Among those believed to have attended last Friday’s meeting are Justice minister Patrick Chinamasa, Deputy Minister of Energy Hubert Nyanhongo, suspended provincial chairperson Mike Madiro, acting provincial chair Dorothy Mabika, Buhera North MP William Mutomba, war veterans’ leader Joseph Chinotimba and Zanu PF women boss Oppah Muchinguri. Most of the petitioners are believed to belong to a faction reportedly led by Defence minister Emmerson Mnangagwa. The Mnangagwa faction is believed to be fighting a rival faction allegedly led by Vice-President Joice Mujuru. Both Mnangagwa and Mujuru have, however, denied habouring presidential ambitions.
