Dumped Zanu PF bigwigs get lifeline

By Mugove Tafirenyika

Zanu PF bigwigs who failed to make it in President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s Cabinet including former Home Affairs minister Obert Mpofu have been redeployed to work for the ruling party on a full-time basis.

The decision was taken at yesterday’s Zanu PF politburo meeting held at the party headquarters in Harare yesterday.

Addressing the media after the meeting, Zanu PF spokesperson Simon Khaya Moyo said the decision was meant to keep the party sound by ensuring that some of its cadres remain domiciled in the party while others concentrate on government business. 

“The politburo has reassigned some comrades to work full time at the party headquarters to ensure that the party continues to function smoothly as others concentrate on government business,”  Khaya Moyo said.

This comes amid reports that the Zanu PF politburo merely rubber-stamped a proposal by Mnangagwa to allow some senior officials such as Mpofu and others who include Khaya Moyo, Zanu PF legal secretary Paul Mangwana, former Foreign Affairs minister Simbarashe Mumbengegwi, former Information minister Christopher Mushowe, Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans Association spokesperson Douglas Mahiya, and youth league deputy secretary Lewis Mathuthu to work full-time at the party, joining national commissar Engelbert Rugeje with full ministerial benefits.

Insiders also told the Daily News that former chief whip in Parliament, Lovemore Matuke, who was appointed deputy Labour minister will be replaced by youth league leader Pupurai Togarepi.

Former Senate president Edna Madzongwe who is a member of the politburo on the other hand was left in the cold after her position in Senate was given to former National Assembly deputy Speaker Mabel Chinomona amid allegations that she was paying for her relationship with former president Robert Mugabe.

Mugabe was forced out of power last November to pave way for Mnangagwa’s rise to power.

While Mugabe’s ouster by his former ally with the help of the army was acrimonious, Mnangagwa and his former boss seem to have found each other again after the 94-year-old threw his weight behind opposition MDC Alliance leader Nelson Chamisa who went on to controversially lose the presidential election in July. Daily News