Zanu PF activist and Harare provincial secretary for tourism, Acie Lumumba, has claimed First Lady Grace Mugabe and Vice-President Emmerson Mnangagwa, among other top ruling party leaders, harbour ambitions to succeed President Robert Mugabe.
by XOLISANI NCUBE
Lumumba, in a new video recording released yesterday, said both Grace and Mnangagwa had presidential aspirations, hence the intense factional fights currently bedevilling Zanu PF.
“You must understand that (in) politics, (there) is a batch of very aggressive ambitious people, who fight on the lines of who is going to lead the way forward,” he said.
“Does everybody want to be President? That’s why you get into politics. Do I want to be President? Of course, I want to be President. Does the Vice-President want to be President? Of course, he wants to be President. Does the First Lady want to be President? Of course, she wants to be President. That is why she is in politics because she is trying to be President,” he said.
Lumumba was previously linked to the G40 faction in Zanu PF reportedly backing Grace ahead of Mnangagwa in the race to succeed 92-year-old Mugabe.
However, he recently broke ranks with some of the key G40 members after he was removed as chairperson of a youth steering committee on indigenisation amid allegations of corruption and conflict of interest.
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In the latest video, the youth activist said Zanu PF had to reform and resolve the succession question or risk losing the 2018 elections.
Lumumba challenged Mugabe and Zanu PF to deal with the sensitive succession issue, saying it was causing instability in the party.
In the video, he said Zanu PF had become unstable due to the never-ending succession squabbles.
Both Mnangagwa and Grace have denied harbouring presidential ambitions.
“Zanu PF has to get its house in order. We have to get our house in order. We have to accept that Zanu PF is not stable. It is not stable because we have not dealt with the succession issue. Everybody needs to know what is going to happen when President Mugabe is no longer here,” Lumumba said.
“I am not attacking the President, but this is a genuine question: What happens if you go? Until we deal with this, yes, the Constitution does deal with this and the practice does, but we need to put a cap on jostling, otherwise we are headed nowhere.”
In the video, Lumumba says Zanu PF had to allow new ideas or else it would lose come 2018.
“Until we reform, we will not get to a political solution. We will be reformed by the people of this country because in 2018, they are going to get us out of power,” he said.
The youth activist also named corruption and a “clueless Cabinet”, as primary sources of the current challenges bedevilling the country.
He said Mugabe should fire his entire Cabinet if he is to turn around the country’s fortunes.
