A SHADOWY State media columnist going by the pseudonym Bishop Lazarus has warned embattled Vice-President Emmerson Mnangagwa to prepare for war as the internal power struggle in Zanu PF heads for the home stretch.
BY RICHARD CHIDZA
In an opinion published in The Sunday Mail, the columnist, however warned Mnangagwa’s tormentors to tread carefully least their plan fails.
Zanu PF is split between two distinct factions with the other group known as G40 bitterly opposed to Mnangagwa’s bid to succeed President Robert Mugabe and instead pushing for either First Lady Grace or Defence minister Sydney Sekeramayi to take over the post.
“…. as we head towards the remaining interface rallies and as we head towards the Zanu PF special congress there will be little boxers throwing punches at Mnangagwa.
“Some people will be sponsored to do so while others will just be overzealous to put up a show. There is going to be stamped and VP Mnangagwa better be get ready to be tipped over by little frogs. VP Mnangagwa is going to be free for all but people must leave room for engagement in case they do not get their way,” the opinionist said.
In the past few weeks, Grace with support from other G40 leading lights among them acerbic Higher Education minister Jonathan Moyo and lately Manicaland youth league provincial leader Mubuso Chinguno, has openly told Mnangagwa to resign.
Grace has also demanded that Mugabe anoints a successor but the Zanu PF leader has rejected the idea, adding he would not also hand over power to his excitable wife.
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Bishop Lazarus opined that Mnangagwa could benefit from the victim syndrome if his interlocutors continue bashing him.
Mugabe has been on a whirlwind tour of the country’s 10 provinces meeting party supporters at which Mnangagwa has become a favourite subject.
The Zanu PF leader has since agreed to turn Zanu PF’s upcoming annual conference into a mini-congress, raising suspicions he might use it to elevate his wife and demote Mnangagwa with the re-introduction of the women’s quota top of the agenda.
But reports now indicate Mnangagwa’s Lacoste faction has thrown the cat among the pigeons by playing on Mugabe’s proposal for three vice-presidents, demanding that the slot be allocated to Manicaland political matriarch Oppah Muchinguri.
