INTERNECINE fights in President Robert Mugabe’s Zanu PF party which appear to thwart efforts to deliver on the party’s populist election promises have intensified.
Instead of addressing water woes bedevilling nearly all the local authorities as per its election promises, it would appear Zanu PF has no choice but expunge its energies on trying to put out the fire in the much-hyped Team Zanu PF.
This newspaper yesterday reported that the country’s first urban settlement — Masvingo — has gone for almost four days without running water, leaving residents on the precipice of an outbreak of waterborne diseases less than five months after the cancellation of all residential council debts.
Poverty and moral decadence are taking a toll on the nation. In fact, the country is set to miss three of eight Millennium Development Goals by 2015, according to a latest UN report.
There is an upsurge in crime nationwide as people battle to put food on the table, something which the new administration should be focussing on.
But alas, the mandarins in the party which promised to take us to the Promised Land are at each other’s throats as pretenders to the crown and their agent provocateurs jostle to position their horses.
In the past few weeks media has been awash — surprisingly including Zanu PF mouthpieces, the State media — with reports of factional fights.
In the Midlands province — a perceived stronghold of Emmerson Mnangagwa thought by some as Mugabe’s heir apparent — the internal fights are now in the High Court. As exclusively reported by this newspaper, the political fall has seen Mnangagwa’s wife, Auxilia, and four others launching a $50 million criminal defamation lawsuit against a rival faction thought to be linked to Vice-President Joice Mujuru.
- Chamisa under fire over US$120K donation
- Mavhunga puts DeMbare into Chibuku quarterfinals
- Pension funds bet on Cabora Bassa oilfields
- Councils defy govt fire tender directive
Keep Reading
Although both Mnangagwa and Mujuru have publicly denied leading any factions, the fights to succeed Mugabe reached new levels as evidenced by a harsh exchange of words between officials in the Information ministry and the Zanu PF secretary for administration Didymus Mutasa and spokesperson Rugare Gumbo.
The episode has sucked in political appointees at the State media who have had the temerity to refer to the two senior Zanu PF officials as “dwarfish politicians”.
To compound issues for the party, officials “loaned” vehicles to campaign for Zanu PF are refusing to surrender the cars, in a clear defiance of Mutasa and the party. A special politburo meeting has been called to deal with the public spats.
But Team Zanu PF should be reminded of its election promises and more so that when elephants fight, it is the grass that suffers.
