Mnangagwa die-hards vow to spoil Mugabe re-election bid

By Tafadzwa Muranganwa

Ousted Zanu PF Mashonaland Central youth chair, Godfrey Tsenengamu has vowed to throw spanners into President Robert Mugabe’s re-election bid in next year’s harmonised elections.

He was addressing the media in Harare on Monday where he insisted he will urge Zanu PF supporters to vote for party candidates in parliamentary and council elections but spoil the presidential ballot.

“I will vote for a Zanu PF councillor, a Zanu PF MP but if President Mugabe is the candidate, we would rather spoil the vote by drawing caricatures on the ballot paper,” Tsenengamu said.

“You are in for a rude-awakening that is worse than your 2008 election loss Mr President.”

He was flanked by other former Zanu PF loyalists.

President Mugabe lost the first round of the 2008 election to arch-rival Morgan Tsvangirai of MDC-T but muscled his way back to office via a bloody run-off poll which reportedly claimed over 200 opposition followers.

There were reports party politicians opposed to his continued rule had performed a “Bhora Musango”, a case where party supporters were urged to vote for all Zanu PF candidates in the harmonised elections but reject the president.

Tsenengamu, who insists he was still Zanu PF despite his expulsion alongside some party provincial chairs last year, was clad on a Zanu PF t-shirt.

He said he was acting as a “messenger” who was fronting what he claims was a popular push in the beleaguered party to uplift Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa as Mugabe successor.

“I have much respect to President Robert Mugabe so much that I have likened him to the biblical Moses who led the children of Israel from slavery and bondage. So as our president who also took us from the (Ian, colonial Rhodesia’s last premier) Smith regime but it’s now time for Joshua (Mnangagwa) to take over the reins,” Tsenengamu the outspoken Mangagwa ally.

Tsenengamu, who was expelled from the party alongside other party youth provincial leaders for undermining the President and his wife, said Mugabe should avoid humiliation by the opposition if he stood for another term next year.

“We have already identified your (Mugabe) successor and he is someone who have been loyal to you for a very long time and he will be able to guarantee your security in the event that you leave power rather than that you get a drubbing from the opposition which is inherent given the fissures with Zanu PF,” he said.

President Mugabe has said during his birthday interview with the State media that he would not appoint any successor.

The veteran leader insists non among the current crop of his lieutenants was sellable to the party membership.

His wife Grace has also said Mnangagwa would lose an election to a chicken.

But Tsenengamu insisted the Midlands strongman possessed leadership qualities that will spur this country ahead.

“We need the leadership qualities of the vice president for this country to work again and it is through us that we have anointed him and he did not send us as some would like to believe,” claimed Tsenengamu.

Mnangagwa also enjoys support from the war veterans component of Zanu PF that has also fallen out wih Mugabe for voicing its approval for the VP. Radio VOP