Gays hijack Zanu PF: Mliswa

By Mugove Tafirenyika

HARARE – There are real fears that the ugly infighting within President Robert Mugabe’s Zanu PF party has now come perilously close to degenerating into a fatal war that could see opponents organising hits against each other.

This emerged after motormouth Hurungwe West legislator Temba Mliswa convened a media conference in Harare yesterday where he made sensational claims as the fallout from the party’s deadly factional and succession battle escalates.

Among Mliswa’s myriad bombshell allegations was his below-the-belt claim that politburo members and Cabinet ministers Jonathan Moyo and Saviour Kasukuwere were “gay gangsters who have hijacked the ruling party”.

The fiery Zanu PF Mashonaland West provincial chairperson’s acerbic attack on his party colleagues follows recent State media accusations that he was allegedly a Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) mole.

His broadside yesterday also came in the wake of worsening factional fights in the party that have seen deputy Foreign Affairs minister Christopher Mutsvangwa taking the unprecedented step of questioning Vice President Joice Mujuru’s war credentials.

“The question… is whether the party has become a party of gay gangsters because it is not a secret that Kasukuwere and Jonathan Moyo are close,” Mliswa said.

“It is a whole syndicate of gay people, otherwise what would you be doing shopping in New York with another man, leaving your wife behind and the man is excited about having to go shopping with you?” Mliswa asked rhetorically, adding that this was the reason why suspended Sunday Mail Editor Edmund Kudzayi, “a 29 year-old man without a wife” had been hired by Moyo.

Mliswa alleged that Moyo was behind a smear campaign against him, which was meant to mask his (Moyo’s) own links to the American spy agency.

As the Hurungwe West legislator claimed Moyo’s stint with Ford Foundation revealed that he was one of the CIA’s operatives, Mliswa produced a document which he claimed showed the link between the CIA and the American institute.

Mliswa also said Moyo was receiving funds to destabilise Zanu PF from within.

“You cannot be part of this organisation without their initiation,” Mliswa said, adding that Zanu PF deputy director of information Psychology Maziwisa had also allegedly been roped in by Moyo because of his alleged “homosexual orientation.”

While Moyo was not picking up his mobile when the Daily News tried to contact him yesterday, Kasukuwere laughed off the allegations, suggesting that Mliswa had lost control of his mental faculties.

Maziwisa declined to comment saying he wanted to see the story first before doing so.

Kasukuwere said: “That one is now crazy, I don’t take him seriously,” he said before hanging up.

Further efforts to talk to him were fruitless as he was no longer picking up his mobile phone.

Continued Mliswa: “Some of us wonder if the party has been hijacked by these homosexuals but it is now time we stop it. We cannot go to congress in December with gays in our midst. We, the young in the party should put a stop to that.

“We will not allow the party to be run by gay gangsters. They are constantly given money by the CIA and we have proof that they are gay, people like Maziwisa, I can prove it to the president”.

Mliswa said the Zanu PF central committee, in which he is a member by virtue of being provincial chairperson, had been rendered useless as the politburo no longer reports to it.

Mliswa also tore into another politburo member and Mugabe’s nephew Patrick Zhuwao, whom he accused of plotting to oust his uncle, Mugabe.

He said Zhuwao was being used by Moyo to pursue factional agendas to the detriment of the party and the First Family.

The maverick legislator said it was ironic that both Moyo and Zhuwao were at the forefront of the campaign to force Mugabe to resign owing to advanced age, yet they now wanted to be seen to be championing the nonagenarian’s continued stay at the helm of the party and the country more than anyone else.

The businessman-cum-politician said the two were falsely posing as power-brokers in the beleaguered Zanu PF when in fact they were “kings without kingdoms and castles.”

“It is because some of us were not in positions of authority when they ran the show but now that we are here, we are there to protect the leadership,” Mliswa said.

He said Zhuwao particularly wanted the Zanu PF youth league to have the same influence as South Africa’s ANC youth league “where Julius Malema had (had) the power to recall the then president Thabo Mbeki.

“Zhuwao is being used by a faction and yet he talks about a palace coup but we are saying to him come let us work in the constituencies because that is the only way of preventing it,” Mliswa said.

“I challenged him in one of our meetings to stand by his uncle as some of us do. We stand by our uncles through thick and thin.

“They believe controlling the youths will help them achieve their goal to change the presidium at congress but we are staying with the status quo.”

While refusing to blame Mugabe for failing to follow party rules that provide that the politburo reports to the central committee, Mliswa said the president needed to reconsider Moyo’s appointment.

“The president is an ardent believer and follower of the rules and he has asked us in the central committee to make the politburo accountable but maybe it is about the composition of the central committee that we have to look at,” he said.

“What is probably worrying is that Moyo stood as independent, he was rehired and he lost elections but was still appointed and we ask, ‘what is he doing amongst us?’” Mliswa told dozens of gathered journalists.

He also suggested that some of the country’s security chiefs are heavily compromised because of their association with Moyo.

Mliswa also launched a scathing attack on Mutsvangwa, calling him an undisciplined war veteran who must be reined in.

He claimed that it was Mutsvangwa’s recklessness which had led to the premature termination of his tour of duty in China as Zimbabwe’s envoy to Beijing.

Mliswa denied taking money from the Americans as alleged, but said he welcomed any aid to his constituency because it was “poor and in need of aid”.

Analyst Shepherd Mntungwa warned last night that Zanu PF was close to a deadly internal war.

“Make no mistake about it, Mugabe has lost control of the party and the feuding factions. Unless something happens soon to mitigate the situation, it may be a matter of time before body bags begin to pop up. The situation is that bad,” he said. Daily News