Arrogant Mugabe disregards Zanu PF

By Fungi Kwaramba

President Robert Mugabe stuck to his old, tired script yesterday evening, telling a nation anticipating his exit that he is going nowhere.

In a televised address, beamed live on national television, Mugabe noted the fast-paced events of the past few days, including internal processes activated by his Zanu PF party to get him out of office, but gave no hint that he was considering vacating the high pressure job anytime soon.

Even though his party had taken the decision to recall him a few hours earlier, replacing the 93-year-old nationalist with Emmerson Mnangagwa, Mugabe declared he will preside over the ruling party’s congress due in two weeks, ignoring the fact that he is no longer the leader of Zanu PF.

The nation had been made to wait for his address that had been scheduled to be aired before prime time news at 8pm on State television, but after nearly two hours of waiting, the ZTV crew later beamed a downcast Mugabe, in the presence of security chiefs, ready to go live with his address.

What followed disappointed viewers who had been made to believe that the address was Mugabe’s last as president.

Mugabe, who spoke incoherently, constantly shuffling papers, said he still has a role to play in Zanu PF and had heeded the military decisions to end the bitter factional squabbles in his party.

He said Zimbabweans, who demonstrated against his unpopular rule in their tens of thousands in Harare and Bulawayo on Saturday, are peaceful and pleaded for engagement to “resolve our differences”.

“The congress is due in a few weeks from now and I will preside over it, it must not be predetermined by any act calculated to undermine it or to compromise it. I am aware that many developments have been taking place in the party and by individuals in the name of the party, given the failings of the party….however, we cannot be guided by bitterness and revengefulness, which would not makes us any better… Zimbabweans,” he said.

In a speech typifying his long reign, Mugabe preached reconciliation and a promise to address the issues raised by the Zimbabwe military, led by General Constantino Chiwenga.

“We must learn to forget and resolve our issues in a comradely Zimbabwean way, I am confident that from tonight that our nation will get focussed as we put shoulder to the wheel,” said Mugabe.

There has been growing calls for Mugabe to retire with the Zanu PF central committee earlier yesterday giving him an ultimatum to resign before today midday or risk an impeachment.

The army took over control last week and arrested several Zanu PF officials from the Generation 40 faction.

Mugabe said the intervention by the military was motivated by “a deep patriotic concern for the stability of the nation.

“The operation that I have alluded to does not amount to a threat to our well cherished constitutional order nor does it threaten my position as the head of State and government, not even as commander-in-chief of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces,” he said.

He said corrective steps were being taken to restore normalcy in the party that has been rocked by factionalism for decades.

Mugabe acknowledged that the infighting in Zanu PF has almost rendered government operations dysfunctional but “all this now had been stopped as we inaugurate a new work culture, which will show our strong sense of purpose to turn around the fortunes of our economy”.

Unfazed by the protests, Mugabe said his government will now pursue policies designed to extricate Zimbabweans from the present economic quagmire.

Responding to the concerns that were raised by the military generals, Mugabe also assuaged his commanders as he promised to give in to demands of war veterans who have been at the forefront of pushing for his ouster.

Mugabe said he acknowledged the concerns raised by the generals concerning the party which they said had been hijacked by “criminal elements”.

“I am aware that as a party of the liberation struggle, Zanu PF has over the years written procedures that guide operations of all its organ and personnel…the current criticism raised again by the command element has arisen from a well founded perception that the party was failing in its procedures,” he said.

The country’s service chiefs, among them Chiwenga, Air Force commander Perrance Shiri, police commissioner-general Augustine Chihuri, Zimbabwe National Army commander Phillip Sibanda and commissioner of prisons, Paradzai Zimondi attended yesterday’s high stakes meeting.

Also present was Justice minister Happyton Bonyongwe, who until recently was the director-general of the country’s secret service. Daily News