‘Kasukuwere summons 60 Zanu PF MPs’
By Mugove Tafirenyika
HARARE – Zanu PF national political commissar Saviour Kasukuwere reportedly summoned all ruling party MPs for a “get together” at his farm in Mashonaland Central last weekend amid mounting concern the bellicose politician was consolidating his influence in the ruling party.
With relations between Kasukuwere’s so-called Generation 40 faction and some Zanu PF hardliners aligned to Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa fraying over the succession of President Robert Mugabe, authoritative sources told the Daily News yesterday that the Local Government minister, nicknamed “Tyson” for his combative political style, was preparing to take his adversaries head on.
MPs who attended the meeting held on Sunday at his Cornucopia Farm said while Kasukuwere avoided discussing politics directly, “his message was pregnant with political innuendoes concentrating more on having the party united.”
The move was widely seen by his detractors in the party as a reincarnation of the Tsholotsho Declaration — a 2004 palace coup that sought to block the ascendancy of Joice Mujuru to the vice presidency.
“Over 30 MPs from all over the country came because we all thought the meeting was to do with the party’s commissariat department,” a source who attended the meeting told the Daily News.
“We were, however, shocked to realise that it was Tyson who wanted to spend the whole day with us at his farm but being the politician he is, it was clear from his address that he wanted to placate suspended MPs who accuse him of being behind their political problems as he kept on asking about those who did not attend.”
Debilitating factional and succession wars have become the order of the day in Mugabe’s post-congress Zanu PF, with senior officials perceived to be linked to Mujuru and her successor Mnangagwa being targeted for expulsion to deter others from contemplating crossing the floor.
Another MP from Kasukuwere’s home province said the powerful party organiser, whose faction of Young Turks is believed to have roped in Mugabe’s wife Grace in a bid to block Mnangagwa’s ascendancy was also under pressure from the province over the expulsion of Mutorashanga MP Christopher Chitindi.
He said the issue had divided the province and Kasukuwere was keen to heal the rift as he did not want the province to slip from his grip as happened before Mujuru’s ouster.
“Contrary to what most have been made to believe, Kasukuwere did not approve Chitindi’s dismissal,” our source said.
“It was the chairman (Dickson Mafios)’s decision because he does not like him.
“People told the national commissar that Mafios had misled the provincial coordinating committee into believing that he had complained about his insubordination.”
Chitindi, whose name had long been associated with the Mujuru camp and survived attempts to suspend him last year, was finally shown the exit door last week on allegations of “undermining” Kasukuwere’s authority.
With Mujuru gone, Kasukuwere and Grace’s G40 camp is now pitted against supporters of Mnangagwa who are said to be determined to make sure that the party strongman succeeds Mugabe.
Their fragile unity to oust and eventually expel Mujuru from the party, the sources claimed, had been “a marriage of convenience” as they both wanted one of their own to succeed Mugabe. Daily News
