Published: 2016 August 03 08:18:32 (6777 Views)

PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe and opposition MDC-T leader, Morgan Tsvangirai will today be reading a strikingly similar script at their respective parties’ meetings, both called to address growing dissent, which pose a serious threat to their political careers.
Mugabe and Tsvangirai remain the country’s two biggest political brands, albeit both with waning fortunes and are afflicted by ill-health. Mugabe was three weeks ago rejected by war veterans, while Tsvangirai faces a fresh headache after he appointed two additional deputy presidents. To add to Mugabe’s woes, his government is on a daily basis facing pockets of resistance from within Zanu PF and members of the public hard hit by the economic meltdown.
Insiders said the Zanu PF politburo will also discuss the country’s deteriorating security situation, after war veterans recently ditched Mugabe and “anointed” Vice-President Emmerson Mnangagwa to succeed him, although the President’s deputy has distanced himself from the manoeuvres. Mugabe’s government is also struggling to pay civil servants’ salaries.
Today’s politburo meeting, according to reports, will also discuss pending disciplinary cases, as well as possible expulsion of war veterans fingered in the authoring of the communiqué.
“The G40 faction is baying for blood, they want other war veterans like Mahiya and Matemadanda expelled from the party,” a politburo member, who declined to be named, said.

“While war veterans and the communiqué are likely to be top of the agenda, there will also be calls for an early congress.”
Mnangagwa, sources said, could also use the politburo meeting to hit back at his detractors, among them Manicaland Provincial Affairs minister Mandi Chimene, who last week publicly dressed him down.
With Zanu PF virtually split between two distinct factions, Mnangagwa is accused of fronting the Team Lacoste faction that is engaged in a bitter war for control of the ruling party with the G40 group, which is said to have the backing of First Lady Grace Mugabe. Chimene last Thursday called on Mugabe to fire Mnangagwa or call for an extraordinary congress.
The politburo meeting is also expected to deal with the cases of three suspended Zanu PF provincial chairpersons while the issue of youth secretary, Pupurai Togarepi and the league secretary for administration, Lewis Matutu, who were deposed through no-confidence votes in February, are also set to be discussed. Matiza yesterday said he was unsure of his future in the ruling party.
Zanu PF secretary for administration, Ignatius Chombo could not be reached for comment.
For Tsvangirai, there is a sense of déjà vu, as he is once again faced with the spectre of a split, the third in just over a decade. Today’s MDC-T national council meeting is set to debate the contentious appointment of Kuwadzana East MP, Nelson Chamisa and Warren Park MP, Elias Mudzuri as vice-presidents alongside Tsvangirai’s long-serving deputy, Thokozani Khupe. The appointments, effected two weeks ago, have ruffled feathers in the opposition party, with some of Tsvangirai’s lieutenants strongly opposing the decision.
An MDC-T standing committee meeting last week was reportedly aborted after only 15 minutes after Khupe reportedly objected to Mudzuri and Chamisa’s attendance. Gutu confirmed the national executive and national council would meet today to discuss various issues.
“Any unfinished constitutional business of the party shall also be finalised. Immediately after the national executive meeting, there shall be convened a meeting of the national council (and) it shall receive a report from president Tsvangirai and council will, thereafter, debate and discuss all pertinent issues affecting both the party and the nation at large,” he said.
Tsvangirai’s supporters, on the other hand, are reportedly baying for the blood of party officials opposed to his decisions. Impeccable sources said the MDC-T’s committee on legal issues met yesterday afternoon to tinker with the party’s constitution to sanitise Chamisa and Mudzuri’s appointments.




- NewsDay

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