EXPELLED Zanu PF secretary for administration Didymus Mutasa has made sensational claims that his former colleagues intend to kill him before a by-election is held in his former Headlands constituency, which he intends to contest.
SILAS NKALA STAFF REPORTER
Mutasa yesterday told Southern Eye he had got wind that there were some party members who were planning to kill him in the run-up to the election, as Zanu PF was running scared he would defeat their candidate in the polls.
“I hear that there is a plan to kill me during the campaign for the by-election in Headlands,” he said.
“That must be exposed.”
In statements that could reveal Zanu PF’s tactics in past elections, Mutasa claimed the party had already deployed soldiers and State security agents in the constituency to intimidate him and the electorate.
“Soldiers should be removed from rural areas,” he said.
“They are being misused to campaign for the illegal party candidates. Those party candidates should campaign for themselves without misusing State institutions like the army, police, the Central Intelligence Organisation and other civil servants.”
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The unrelenting Mutasa said he was aware that there was a member of the Air Force in Headlands constituency who was harassing people believed to be supporting him.
“We know that Chiganze of the Air Force is in Headlands constituency harassing people who are believed to support me,” he said.
“That is evil and should be stopped immediately.
“Unfortunately, the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission cannot do much to ensure fair play.”
Mutasa’s claims could be an indication that the heat is being cranked up in the war of attrition between factions in Zanu PF — one aligned to axed Vice-President Joice Mujuru and another to her successor Emmerson Mnangagwa.
Mutasa, who was expelled from Zanu PF together with his nephew Temba Mliswa, has filed a lawsuit challenging the party’s congress last year, firmly taking President Robert Mugabe head-on.
This could be the first legal challenge to Mugabe’s legitimacy from a member of his own party and is bound to reveal some uncomfortable Zanu PF secrets.
Mutasa’s assassination claims echo those of former Copac co-chairman Munyaradzi Paul Mangwana, who was filmed in a BBC documentary claiming there had been an order to take him out as he had sold out.
“So when I visited the general and put my cards on the table. . . he grouped all the people who were involved in the plot — it was a powerful team,” he was recorded saying.
“Those who are in the know in my own party are saying we do not know how you survived.”
