Mutasa happy to rejoin Zanu-PF

By Tendai Mugabe

Former State Security Minister and Zanu PF Secretary for Administration, Didymus Mutasa, who was expelled from the party at the height of factionalism, says he is happy to re-join the party after spending two years in the cold.

Mutasa was fired on same day as Norton legislator Mr Temba Mliswa, allegedly for undermining the party leadership, then under former President Mr Robert Mugabe.

Following his application, Zanu PF readmitted Mutasa in the party on Wednesday, together with former chairperson of the Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans Association Jabulani Sibanda.

Also admitted into the party was Chenjerai Kangausaru.

Mutasa said he was happy to be back home. He revealed that he had met President Emmerson Mnangagwa and wished him well in his leadership of the party and the country.

“I welcomed that decision and I feel happy to be back in the party,” he said.

“I was just concerned with the developments in the party, particularly the behaviour of the former First Lady (Mrs Grace Mugabe). I felt that what she was doing was not the Zanu PF way and I was worried that the party leadership was not alive to that.”

Asked if he had met with President Mnangagwa, Mutasa said: “I went to his office to congratulate him and wished him well in his leadership of the party and that of the country.”

Mutasa said he did not have any qualms re-joining the party as an ordinary member since it was the party rule to do so. 

Zanu PF secretary for War Veterans, Detainees and Restrictees Victor Matemadanda said they were happy with the return of Mutasa and Sibanda.

He said it was their wish all war veterans who left the party for various reasons returning.

“We are very excited. Zanu PF is a mass party, but in the mass party you have what is known is the revolutionary element of the party,” he said.

“That cannot be gained from experience, it is gained from exposure of the difficult times we went through during the liberation war.

“You cannot replace or substitute their experience, their resilience. Now most of the people you see join politics for commercial proposes where they should have this or that benefit.

“When you are looking at the revolutionary element, which is the cadreship of the party, whether they get a benefit or not, they still retain the same position that you saw them last 10 or 15 years ago.

“The same goes to the likes of Cde (Didymus) Mutasa. Some people would want to say, but he had formed his own party, that was frustration.

“Him (Cde Mutasa), having worked closely with (Mr) Mugabe, he knew more of Mugabe than we did ourselves and during his time of victimisation, we did not support it.

“We did not see what he had seen at that time.

“Had we known or seen what he had seen ourselves, that was going to cut our revolution short. We were not going to have this issue of youth interfaces because that was going to cut that.

“Now we are talking about the values of the cadreship of the party back into force. We have people who can hear that there is G40 and we have our leader there, they will know that the leader has been lost.

“Those are rare people and unfortunately for Zanu PF, it is that type of people we lost or are losing. But they are not dead. The view of the veterans of the liberation is to have everyone back and my appeal to those that have not yet come back already, the policy of the party is that whenever they want to be re admitted, they should reapply and they must be humble enough as cadres of the revolution.

Matemadanda added: “It is not out of desperation, but it is out of their attachment to the revolution.

“You will never have another Zanu PF in your lives. The only Zanu PF we have is the Zanu PF led by Cde Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa.

“I am happy that people like Retired Brigadier-General Ambrose Mutinhiri, who had left the party have applied to come back.” The Herald