THE Zanu PF politburo last night reportedly failed to come up with a date for its primary elections amid reports of intense differences over guidelines for the internal polls insiders told NewsDay yesterday.
POLITICAL EDITOR
As a result, the meeting is scheduled to continue today. Zanu PF spokesperson Rugare Gumbo confirmed the impasse to State broadcaster ZBC last night.
Sources, however, said the politburo members were also debating the Zanu PF presentation to the Sadc extra-ordinary summit that will be held in Maputo, Mozambique, on Saturday to deal with the region’s hotspots, including Zimbabwe’s political crisis. It is understood that the impending Sadc summit took centre stage as stakes were high.
By the time of going to print, the meeting — which started around 2pm — was still going on, raising the likelihood that it was no stroll in the park.
Zanu PF is heavily divided over guidelines for primaries, amid reports that “young Turks” fighting to represent the party, were facing stiff resistance from the old guard, determined to remain in power.
However, party sources earlier in the day said President Robert Mugabe was equally poised to get rid of unpopular “deadwood” whom he accused of imposing themselves on the electorate, “a mistake” which led to the defeat of Zanu PF in the 2008 harmonised elections.
“The President made his position clear when he recently said once a candidate is defeated at the polls, he would not accommodate him,” the source said.
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With Zanu PF opponents ganging up to oppose a Constitutional Court ruling compelling Mugabe to hold harmonised elections by July 31 this year, the President was determined to prepare a soft landing in Maputo.
The Sadc summit, which was supposed to be held on Sunday last week, was postponed after Mugabe asked the regional bloc for time to consult his Government of National Unity partners MDC-T leader Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara and MDC leader Welshman Ncube.
Sadc facilitator to the Zimbabwe political crisis South African President Jacob Zuma was expected to present a report on Zimbabwe’s roadmap to free and fair elections.
Zuma’s team last week met Zanu PF, MDC-T and MDC negotiators in Harare on the progress the country had made towards fulfilling Global Political Agreement provisions, including electoral, State security sector and media law reforms expected before the forthcoming harmonised elections.
