Zanu PF Mashonaland Central acting chairman Dickson Mafios has pleaded with ruling party members to bury the hatchet and stop attacking officials perceived to be loyal to former Vice-President Joice Mujuru.
BY XOLISANI NCUBE
Addressing hundreds of mourners at the burial of Nicholas Goche Jnr, son of former Zanu PF politburo member and ex-Cabinet minister, Nicholas Goche in Madziwa, Mafios said, although many Zanu PF stalwarts had been punished for working with Mujuru, it was time to close ranks.
“We know that they have been punished for various offences, what happened has happened. Let us not continue focusing on those issues,” he told mourners who included the party provincial leadership as well as a host of suspended Zanu PF members who were accused of being loyal to the Mujuru camp. “I hope those who were disciplined have learnt and repented. If they don’t, well that is not our problem. As Zanu PF let us not allow people with ulterior motives to hijack such events like funerals to start their political project . . . we want unity among the party cadres.”
Goche was suspended for five years on allegations that he was plotting with Mujuru to oust President Robert Mugabe. He was also kicked out of Cabinet along with a host of other ministers due to his alleged involvement in the plot to dethrone Mugabe at the party’s congress in December last year. Goche Jnr (40) died in South Africa after collapsing and leaves behind a wife and two children.
Several former Zanu PF heavyweights thronged Goche’s homestead to pay their last respects among them Mbare MP and former politburo member Tendai Savanhu, former Clerk of Parliament Austin Zvoma and many other legislators.
