By Blessings Mashaya
Outspoken Zanu PF activist Energy Mutodi says plots by Manicaland provincial minister Mandi Chimene to put a wedge between Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa and President Robert Mugabe are futile because the two are “inseparable”.
Mutodi, who is viewed as a Mnangagwa sympathiser, said the duo — which has known each other for over 50 years — “will never part willingly”.
Mnangagwa has been under pressure to resign on allegations that he is plotting to succeed Mugabe, with Chimene recently attacking him openly at a war veterans meeting.
Chimene publicly accused Mnangagwa — nicknamed ngwena (crocodile) — of leading a parallel government and secretly planning 92-year-old Mugabe’s downfall.
“The Tsholotsho Declaration was being led by Mnangagwa, and now Team Lacoste is also being led by Mnangagwa. For how long are we going to keep on pampering one another?” Chimene said at the meeting between Mugabe and war veterans last week, which Mnangagwa attended.
“Some of your ministers are now well known that they do not support you. We now have two governments. What are we supposed to do?” Chimene queried, adding that “crocodiles must remain in the water, they must stay in the river, they must not stay with the people, Zanu PF is not a dam for crocodiles.”
But Mutodi, who was chased away from the emotive meeting, warned Chimene to stop playing with fire.
“I feel sorry for Mandi. Ngwena will let you relax in your ignorance.
“He smiles instead. He is not easily intimidated. Because he can swallow anything without necessarily tasting it,” Mutodi posted on his Facebook page.
“You will never feel his presence no matter how close you are to him. When they accuse you to be his close confidante and chase you away he will never come out of the waters,” he said.
Mutodi further said: “I feel very much sorry for my ignorant colleagues at the Law school”, a statement widely seen as directed to suspected G40 kingpins — Saviour Kasukuwere and Jonathan Moyo — who are both law students at the University of Zimbabwe.
“The two are dependent on each other. Robert speaks while Emmerson schemes. Whatever Robert does he consults Emmerson. The two have a contrasting character though. Robert is impatient but his lieutenant Emmerson is extremely patient. You cannot say s*** to Robert and go away with it. You will surely rot in jail. Even if you think you are clean, you will be soiled,” he said.
In an unusual move, following Chimene’s onslaught, Mnangagwa — who is known for his stoic silence even in the face of attack — held a press conference with State media in which he distanced himself from any faction in the deeply-divided Zanu PF.
Meanwhile, academic and political analyst Alex Magaisa opined on his blog that it is unlikely that Mugabe will fire Mnangagwa, considering that the two have an intimate history.
“… Mugabe knows throwing out Mnangagwa would be the nuclear option. He might spare him for a while, while chopping down his allies, one by one as he has been doing in recent months. There is a factor that their long relationship means Mnangagwa is privy to most of Mugabe’s deepest secrets,” said Magaisa. Daily News
