LEAKED Zanu PF documents have exposed the divisions between the party’s warring factions after it emerged that the Midlands provincial executive last month refused to be summoned for a hearing by national political commissar Saviour Kasukuwere.
BY BLESSED MHLANGA
This was after Kasukuwere summoned acting provincial chairperson Kizito Chivamba and fellow executive members Joram Gumbo, Tsitsi Muzenda, Simbarashe Mumbengegwi, Anastancia Ndlovu, Makhosini Hlongwane and Tapiwanashe Matangaidze for a meeting in the commissariat boardroom on December 7 last year.
In his letter referenced “Request for report on disturbances experienced at the Midlands inter-district conference”, Kasukuwere wanted Chivamba to explain the reported disturbances before attending the meeting.
“The commissariat department has learnt with regret of the disturbances that happened during the course of the Midlands provincial inter-district conference on November 28.
“You are requested to submit a report to furnish my office with information of what exactly transpired during the disturbances by December 4,” Kasukuwere wrote.
Chivamba, in his response, said he was not aware of the disturbances and said without further information from Kasukuwere, he was unable to comment on the issue raised in the letter.
“We are not aware of the disturbances that are referred to by the national commissar which occurred during our successful provincial inter-district conference. We are ready to be furnished with relevant information that might have reached the ears of the commissar which we are ignorant of,” Chivamba wrote back.
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Chivamba further told Kasukuwere that following consultations with his seniors in the province, he was unable to attend the meeting.
“The national commissar has expressed a wish to meet with me and my seniors and colleagues, namely Matangaidze and Hlongwane,” Chivamba said.
“I have forwarded the letter to my seniors and I want to advise that we are unable to attend the requested meeting. We await to be furnished with information that is privileged to the national commissar so that deliberations can take place at provincial level.”
Chivamba yesterday declined to be drawn to authenticate the documents, saying: “Those are internal documents which have nothing to do with the media, I will not discuss Zanu PF matters in the Press.”
Provincial spokesperson Cornelius Mupereri said it later emerged that the alleged incidents of violence had been raised by Hlongwane, Matangaidze and Ndlovu who claimed to have been harassed by provincial youth chair Edmore Samambwa, Gokwe-Kana MP Owen Ncube and Gokwe-Nembudziya MP Justice Mayor Wadyajena. The three are linked to Vice-President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s faction, while the complaints are believed to be sympathetic to the G40 faction an ambitious grouping sympathetic to First Lady Grace Mugabe.
The two factions are reportedly strategically positioning their candidates to succeed President Robert Mugabe who turns 92 next month. “We are not at war, but the province felt it was important for the basis of the allegations to be spelt out first so that the response could come from the province and not a few individuals,” Mupereri said.
Following the snub, Kasukuwere then appointed a probe team, led by deputy provincial chairperson Daniel Mackenzie Ncube, to get to the bottom of the crisis. The committee last week exonerated Samambwa, Ncube and Wadyajena of any wrongdoing, but Kasukuwere immediately shot down the committee’s findings insisting the trio should be brought before the national disciplinary committee chaired by Vice-President Phelekezela Mphoko.
Kasukuwere told NewsDay on Monday that the Ncube-led committee had erred in pronouncing the verdict instead of submitting its recommendations to Mphoko’s committee.
