Mutodi savages Mugabe, Mphoko

By Fungi Kwaramba

Outspoken Zanu PF activist and Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa loyalist Energy Mutodi has fired yet another salvo at President Robert Mugabe and his deputy Phelekezela Mphoko saying the party’s leadership is watching with false bravado like “toddlers” while another “bhora musango” is being plotted.

In a clear sign that indeed despite feigning unity, the rank and file in the governing party is now frustrated with the status quo and is now increasingly impatient for a leadership renewal, Mutodi said although he is seized with academic studies, he cannot stand aside and watch while Mugabe and his hangers-on take the country down the garden path.

Savaging Mnangagwa’s nemesis in the Generation 40 (G40) faction, Mutodi claimed that there is a sinister plot by the so-called young Turks to ensure that Zanu PF loses in the eagerly-awaited 2018 elections.

Just like in 2008 when a clique of disillusioned Zanu PF members urged members to vote for them only and not Mugabe, Mutodi said history is now repeating itself.

“Haina kusiyana nebhora mudondo iri kutambwa neboys dzechidiki idzi. Dziri kuti kukwira gomo huvandurira. Ukarinanga rinokufemesa wowira pasi. Saka unotoita rekupoterera kusvika wati ngonono pamusoro-soro paro. Saka mukaoma dzichikukuzai dzichiombera musafunga kuti dziri pachokwadi. Dziri kutokurezvai sepwere mozongoerekana musha waparara.

(This is not different to the bhora mudondo scenario. These people know what they are up to. If you see them respecting you they will be just treating you as a toddler and you will only realise you were duped after the party has crumbled)” said Mutodi.

And while most Zanu PF members have chosen to bury heads in the sand, Mutodi came out guns blazing and dismissed the recently held meeting between Mugabe and a section of war veterans as a “high sounding nothing” that failed to tackle the succession issue which is the root of Zanu PF perpetual dogfights.

“Ndakanzwa kuti pamusangano wemawar vet musharuka wakati i get-together, yekuonana nekudzora ndangariro dzekuhondo. Asi chichabuda hapana hapo (I heard that at the war veterans meeting the old man (Mugabe) said it was a get together to bring back liberation war memories and discuss about life but there is nothing meaningful that will come from that meeting)” said Mutodi.

After the so-called meeting that was attended by more than 10 000 people — the war veterans made a litany of charges against the party’s combative political commissar Saviour Kasukuwere and called on their 92-year-old leader to ensure that in future only a person with liberation war credentials would hold the critical post.

Kasukuwere is accused of leaning towards the G40 faction and his adversaries in Zanu PF also accuse him of targeting Mnangagwa’s allies. He denies the accusations and has constantly demonstrated that whatever he does he would have the blessings of Mugabe.

Thus, Mnangagwa’s loyalists who go by the fancy moniker Team Lacoste are of the view that Mugabe will not tinker with the commissariat department headed by a former intelligence guy who did not partake in the liberation struggle.

“It is a joke that the commissariat will be tempered with. And all this will be happening while the party will be disintegrating. People are not happy and are restless. If anyone is suspected of anything, then that person should be expelled. Anyone who tries to advise the leadership is branded an enemy of the party. Who will be left in the party if we continue expelling people like that?” questioned Mutodi.

There are also growing concerns in the deeply divided governing party that those who have been suspended on “flimsy charges” could coalesce and form their own party or worse still join former Vice President Joice Mujuru who now leads the Zimbabwe People First.

“A fish does not survive without water and a king only rules through the power of the people. This practice of ever expelling people from the party does not reflect a love of the party. Pabva zino panosara vende uye rume rimwe harikombi churu. Chara chimwe hachitswanyi inda,” said Mutodi using powerful Shona idioms.

Turning to Mphoko, who has been stubbornly ensconced in a five-star hotel after refusing the accommodation that government initially offered him; Mutodi said a country whose majority are wallowing in poverty cannot be ruled from the balcony of a hotel.

“Makambozvionepi kuti vanhu vanotongwa nejinda riri kubuda muhotera zuva nezuva. Rabairwa zani nani muimba yevaenzi yariri kubuda? Kana mukaparadzwa imi nesu dzinza rose taparara. (Where did you see people being ruled from a hotel? Who advises him please take heed of our advice because if you are destroyed we will also be destroyed.” Daily News