The Zanu PF anti-sanctions petition campaign has died a natural death almost eight months after it was launched amid revelations the party has developed cold feet because the programme was failing to achieve its targeted goal.

US diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks in which several top Zanu PF officials allegedly volunteered sensitive information to diplomats, including their disdain of President Robert Mugabe, have reportedly diverted the party’s focus.

Insiders this week said the anti-sanctions programme had failed to achieve Zanu PF’s goal of influencing the European Union and United States to remove the restrictions against the party’s influential members.

This has left the party with no option but to temporarily abandon the campaign.

President Mugabe and other top Zanu PF officials are restricted from going to US and its Western allies.

Zanu PF secretary for administration Didymus Mutasa was evasive when asked about the anti-sanctions campaign.

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“What do you want to do with that information? Of what interest and whose interests do you want to serve that information? People who signed the papers are the ones who must ask those questions,” said Mutasa.

Party spokesperson Rugare Gumbo declined to comment yesterday referring questions to Zanu PF political commissar and Information minister Webster Shamu.

“Please check with Comrade Shamu, he is the one responsible for that,” said Gumbo.

However, Shamu was not reachable for comment yesterday. As of June this year, Zanu PF claimed it had collected 2,5 million signatures of people against the punitive measures imposed on Zanu PF leaders.

Revelations are that top party members – including Vice-Presidents Joice Mujuru and John Nkomo and politburo members Indigenisation minister Saviour Kasukuwere, Jonathan Moyo and Sikhanyiso Ndlovu among others, clandestinely met US diplomats and told them the majority in the former ruling party wanted President Mugabe to go.