REVEALED: Minutes of ‘illegal’ Zanu PF meeting that endorsed 2017 coup

By Nyashadzashe Ndoro | Nehanda Politics |

Obert Mpofu was indeed only a Zanu PF secretary for finance when he ‘illegally’ presided over a meeting that forced late former President Robert Mugabe to resign, installing current President Emmerson Mnangagwa.

According to the minutes of a Zanu PF Central Committee meeting held at the Party Headquarters in Harare on the 19th November 2017, Mpofu who is cited as party’s secretary for finance presided over a meeting that declared Mugabe and then Vice President Phelekezela Mphoko incapable of being State leaders.

The ruling party also endorsed the Zimbabwe Defence Forces (ZDF) for executing a military coup that overthrew Mugabe and put Mnangagwa and President.

“The Zanu PF Central Committee met in the Special Section at the Party Headquarters in Harare on the 19th November 2017 in terms of Article 7 Section 37 (7) of the Party’s Constitution.

“The meeting having been duly constituted, noted the incapacitation of the top leadership of the party to execute their duties as enjoined by the Party’s Constitution in particular, as enshrined under Article 7 Section 38 thereof, consequent upon which, Dr. Obert Mpofu was unanimously elected to preside over the proceedings considering he was the most senior member of the party present,” read part of the minutes.

“After considering the recommendations from various Provinces and deliberating intensively, the meeting passed the following resolutions:

“That the Central Committee on behalf of Zanu PF expressed profound gratitude to the Zimbabwe Defence Forces (ZDF) for their intervention efforts in the internal affairs of the Party as a governing Party with view of bringing normalcy both within the Party and Government.”

Last month, a Zanu PF youth member Sybeth Musengezi filed a High Court application seeking an order declaring as illegal the November 19, 2017 Zanu PF central committee meeting and the subsequent ascendancy to power by Mnangagwa.

Musengezi argues that Mnangagwa’s rise to power after the “kangaroo” special committee meeting violated the Zanu PF constitution, because the meeting was illegally presided over by Mpofu who was then only the party’s secretary for finance.

Musengezi is also seeking the capacitation of Mphoko to convene a special Extraordinary Congress of Zanu PF that will decide the lawful position of Mnangagwa and other top party members.

He argues that, at the time of his removal, “Mugabe was not incapacitated to preside over a lawfully convened session of the Central Committee in terms of Article 7 Section 38 of the party’s Constitution but he was at all material times seized with the internal affairs of the party in his engagement with the commanders of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces as evidenced by the subject of his televised speech on the evening of the 19th of November 2017 at the end of which he bid the whole country a good night with the famed Asante Sana remark.”

The matter is yet to be heard but Mnangagwa has since filed an opposing affidavit citing that he cannot be sued because he is protected by the Presidential Immunity to Criminal and Civil Suits provision in the Constitution. Nehanda Radio