First Family illness ‘collapses’ Zanu PF

Politics
BULAWAYO SOUTH MDC-T legislator Eddie Cross has said the deteriorating health of President Robert Mugabe and his wife Grace has left a deadly power vacuum in Zanu PF and the absence of any planned and managed succession has led to the party collapse.

BULAWAYO SOUTH MDC-T legislator Eddie Cross has said the deteriorating health of President Robert Mugabe and his wife Grace has left a deadly power vacuum in Zanu PF and the absence of any planned and managed succession has led to the party collapse. CHIEF REPORTER

Mugabe is said to be feeling the effects of old age, while Grace is said to be suffering from a colon cancer, developments that Cross said had thrown Zanu PF into a crisis.

“Unlike 2008, we now have a full blown political crisis in that the party in power and holds a two thirds majority in Parliament has disintegrated,” he said.

“The deterioration in the health of our ageing president has left a power vacuum at the top of the party and in the absence of any planned and managed succession, a struggle for power has ensued which has torn Zanu PF apart. Grace Mugabe, the president’s wife, who is very much responsible for the chaos in the party has suddenly fallen ill and it looks very serious.”

“Unlike 2008, we now have a full blown political crisis in that the party in power and holds a two thirds majority in Parliament has disintegrated,”: Eddie Cross
“Unlike 2008, we now have a full blown political crisis in that the party in power and holds a two thirds majority in Parliament has disintegrated,”: Eddie Cross

Grace, who dominated Zimbabwe’s political scene late last year soon after being nominated to lead the Zanu PF women’s league, has not made a public appearance since March 8, when she officiated at International Women’s Day commemorations.

Cross said South Africa, which played a key role in the formation of the power-sharing government in 2008, is now finally waking up to the Zimbabwe crisis.

“There are signs that the regional powerhouse, South Africa, is at last waking up to the situation to the north of the Limpopo,” he said.

“Any sudden further deterioration, associated with violence, will have immediate repercussions for South Africa.

“The last thing South Africa needs right now is a full blown collapse and crisis in Zimbabwe.”

Cross said it took the crash in 2008 associated with 250 million percent inflation and the complete wipe out of all savings and the near total collapse of economic activity that brought about conditions where the regional power, South Africa, finally stepped into the ring and demanded change.

But he said the crisis conditions that forced the Government of National Unity into existence in 2009, have now resurfaced and presents “another opportunity to put this country back on its feet and onto a trajectory that will make it possible for people to exploit the massive potential that we undeniably have.”

“But it could deliver us into the arms of the devil,” he said.

To avoid what is coming, we need the intervention of South Africa and a general agreement on the way back to sanity.”