Outspoken Zanu PF resident minister for Manicaland Province and leader of a splinter war veterans grouping has come out guns blazing, describing war veterans minister Rtd colonel Tshinga Dube as “mad”, as the factional fights within the ruling party escalate.
In an interview with NewsDay, Chimene said the claims that she wanted to attack the war veterans’ minister using a sangoma last week were driven by “sheer malice”.
“Don’t you think that he is mad? If I was to assault him, he would surely die and I will go to jail, but what use will it be,” Chimene said.
“I have been insulted numerous times by many people. Why should I start by assaulting him among those that have insulted me? Instead of lying, he should tell people the real story.”
Chimene also claimed the alleged sangoma was a “student” at Marymount Teachers’ College, whose relatives died during the war.
She said the student often comes to war veterans meetings “possessed” by an ancestral spirit, claiming Dube knew the person, as they met in Mozambique during the exhumation of remains of some of the fallen heroes.
Chimene said on that particular day, the student went to the high table and was whisked away to allow the meeting to proceed before returning at the end, where Dube later claimed she was a sangoma unleashed on him.
“Dube should tell the nation how I threatened him. They think they are destroying me, but they are actually giving me too much publicity for nothing. Why are they promoting me this much? Maybe they identified something in me that I haven’t seen and they want to destroy it as soon as possible, but they will not succeed,” she said.
Chimene said she does not lead any war veterans’ faction and the reason why she moved a motion to expel part of the Christopher Mutsvangwa-led executive was because he had failed to toe the Zanu PF line.
Dube was booed by war veterans in Mutare over the weekend together with defence minister Sydney Sekeramayi and his permanent secretary Walter Tapfumaneyi as they tried to seek a lasting solution to serious fighting among ex-freedom fighters who are deeply divided along Zanu PF factional lines.
