THE Zanu PF Masvingo provincial executive yesterday recommended the immediate expulsion of the party’s six stalwarts — among them Psychomotor minister Josaya Hungwe, chief whip Lovemore Matuke and provincial chairperson Ezra Chadzamira — for alleged indiscipline and their association with under-fire Vice-President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s Team Lacoste faction.
BY EVERSON MUSHAVA/RICHARD CHIDZA
Other members facing the axe from the ruling party include central committee member Clemence Makwarimba, deputy legal affairs secretary Munyaradzi Paul Mangwana and Masvingo Central MP Edmund Mhere.
The recommendation came hardly 24 hours after President Robert Mugabe, at a Zanu PF youth interface rally in Bulawayo, challenged Mnangagwa’s backers in Masvingo to leave the ruling party and form their own party.
In a statement yesterday, acting provincial chairperson Amasa Nenjana said the executive met and recommended the immediate expulsion of the six from the party. “We, Zanu PF Masvingo provincial executive reaffirm the sovereignty of Masvingo province as a standalone province whose loyalties are only to Zanu PF, the President and first secretary of the party, Cde RG Mugabe and the secretary of the women’s league Dr Amai Grace Mugabe,” read part of the statement.
“We want to completely dissociate ourselves from Lovemore Matuke’s rebellious group, namely Lovemore Matuke, Clemence Makwarimba, Mangwana, Josaya Hungwe, Edmund Mhere and Ezra Ruvai Chadzamira against the President, and their clandestine activities seeking to undermine the President and Party.”
Nenjana warned that the axe would also fall on other “renegades” in the party’s lower ranks.
But Matuke scoffed at the move, saying he was ready to face disciplinary action for exposing party stalwarts who survived on feeding Mugabe with “lies”.
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“I would not want to be seen to be challenging him (Mugabe). He has the final say in the party and whatever is decided I will accept but remain a loyal member of the party whatever happens,” Matuke said, citing Foreign Affairs minister Walter Mzembi as leading a group of party faithfuls who survived by misleading Mugabe. “The President is being fed with lies, unfortunately he believes such things. It is not the President’s fault but the likes of Mzembi who see themselves as provincial king-makers.
“But unfortunately for the party, Mzembi and his colleagues do not have people on the ground. They do not have the support of the people of Masvingo in their lying schemes,” he said.
“In the face of such things it is useless for one to try and defend themselves because the President has chosen to believe the lies”. Contacted for comment Mzembi denied lying to Mugabe.
“I am not in the business of kingmaking but serving the people of Zimbabwe. That narrative belongs to factionalists like him (Matuke). The only Kingmaker is the appointing authority HE Cde RG Mugabe and he raises cadres not kings,” Mzembi said.
