President Robert Mugabe left his Zanu PF party bleeding from internal factional fights as he flew to Mali to witness a peace-signing deal between President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita and rebels.
by XOLISANI NCUBE
Mugabe, who is the Africa Union chair, had to postpone Zanu PF’s Politburo meeting that was supposed to deal with a feud over who between Mavis Gumbo and Terrence Mukupe should represent the party in the Harare East by-election on June 10.
Zanu PF spokesperson Simon Khaya Moyo told NewsDay that the party’s top leadership was still consulting on how to resolve the puzzle.
“Consultations are still ongoing. We do not have a position yet,” Moyo said last night.
Mukupe had won primary elections ahead of Gumbo, but the Harare provincial executive objected to his candidature, saying he did not have a favourable party history.
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But Mukupe, who enjoys enormous support from the party’s political commissar Saviour Kasukuwere, took the matter to court and won the right to stand as Zanu PF candidate alongside Gumbo.
Meanwhile, Vice-President Emmerson Mnangagwa is Acting President.