Zanu PF national commissar Saviour Kasukuwere has denied mentoring former party youths William Mutumanje alias Acie Lumumba and Godfrey Tsenengamu.
Lumumba, a former Zanu PF losing parliamentary candidate and Tsenengamu, a former Zanu PF youth chairman for Mashonaland Central have both been using press conferences and social media to attack President Robert Mugabe and calling on him to step down.
Asked about the person who influenced him and played a pivotal role in his political life early this year, Lumumba said: “Saviour Kasukuwere. If I had to say only one person. I have been very lucky to have many people in my life who have believed in me and kept me going but this man was the total game changer for me.”
Lumumba is currently facing charges of undermining President Mugabe after he used the F word on the Zanu PF leader while launching his political project, Viva Zimbabwe. On the other hand, Tsenengamu last week urged Bona Mugabe-Chikore to advise her father to quit and her mother, Grace, to be more tactful in politics.
Kasukuwere said at no point in his life had he mentored the duo.
“I did not mentor anybody. When you say you mentor somebody otherwise you sit down and tell them (what to do). I did not sit down (with them). We have been doing this commissariat work, mobilising people to come in their numbers.
“The membership of the party has grown over the years. Look at the last Million Men March, it was the biggest organisation of people by the party in a long time, bringing in thousands of people in support of the leadership of the party.”
“Our duty is to mobilise members to the party, to train and build a cadreship that can be relied upon. But as we move forward, bad apples will always show themselves and will be dealt with and will have to leave the party. There will always come a time where you have to separate grain from chaff,” Kasukuwere said.
“Those young people who would have come into the party, attracted by the party recruited by us or many other cadres in the party, once they stray from the revolutionary principles and direction they must be dealt with. This is what has happened to these young people, the Tsenengamus, Lumumbas, Tamuka Nyonis, Samambwas of this world.
“We removed all of them who had gone against the leadership of the party. Zanu PF is not going to be held hostage by individuals. It is a people’s party and has a membership that runs into millions and it is that membership that sustains the party.”
“Zanu PF has won elections and individuals who believe that they are greater than the party will discover that Zanu PF is greater than them. There are people who think that whatever they say represents the party because they individually give themselves the status of the party.
“The party is about membership, it is about the agreed positions and this is what we have always upheld. Young people growing up in the party are expected to respect and be disciplined.
“Once they get out of that line of command and ability to understand what the party’s ideology is all about they will have no room in the party. Likewise, there are former senior people who were in the party and strayed and the party dealt with them.”
“The call for unity is a serious one but equally the same with the call for discipline,” he said. We want disciplined people to withstand the onslaught of the enemy who is now working 24/7 to derail this country.
“The gains of the revolution, gains of independence cannot be sacrificed. We are expected to uphold the highest form of discipline. To be a cadre of the party you must continue to serve your party selflessly and respect the decisions of the party.
“These young ones have refused to respect the decisions of the party. The decisions of the party at the last Congress was that there is one centre of power who is President Mugabe and the party must remain focused on delivering to the people of Zimbabwe what we promised them in 2013.” Nehanda Radio
