Kasukuwere hits back

Zanu-PF national political commissar Saviour Kasukuwere has come out guns blazing saying those who are pushing an agenda to remove him from the party are a faction who regard him as one of the major stumbling blocks in their quest to take over power from President Robert Mugabe before the 2018 elections.

In an interview with the Daily News yesterday, Kasukuwere said reports he had received, and his own investigations, had revealed that a faction in Zanu-PF which wants the increasingly frail Mugabe out of power this year had instead turned the screws on him because he was a pillar in defending the 93-year-old.

"My position in public and private has been clear, that president Mugabe was elected in 2013 and is our candidate for 2018. It must stand as a public record that president Mugabe should be allowed to do his job without being distracted by hopeless people who want his position," said Kasukuwere.

Kasukuwere expressed his loyalty to Mugabe, who he insisted would be the ruling party's candidate in the eagerly awaited 2018 elections, as he claimed to have no dreams to ever become the president of the burning Zanu-PF.

As the clock ticks towards the party's conference set for December this year, the deadly factional fights are worsening by the day - with Kasukuwere being the latest target.

Kasukuwere has been under the cosh for some time now and recently, several party members from at least six provinces have called on Kasukuwere to be expelled from the party who accuse him of trying to wrestle power from Mugabe and also of fanning divisions in the party.

Some senior Zanu-PF officials from Mashonaland Central province where Kasukuwere hails from recently demonstrated against the embattled Zanu-PF political commissar but Mugabe ordered them to stop the public protests.

Minister of State for Mashonaland Central province Martin Dinha, who claims to be close to the First Family, has in the past called on Kasukuwere to resign.

However, Kasukuwere angrily rejected the calls to step down and shooting from the hip he aimed his guns at Dinha whom he said was being used as a pawn by "successionists" to make sure they got rid of Mugabe before the next elections.

"Dinha is an instrument to aid the regime change agenda. His activities in Mashonaland Central are clearly aimed at advancing a factional position. He has made himself the point man to advance a so called alternative narrative and at the same time lying that he is close to the first family and abusing this theory.

"I will soon expose his hidden agenda at fast tracking regime change and I will dispose of all his allegations one by one. Besides the hidden agenda he is pushing at the behest of the real people who no longer want the president, he has a personal agenda where he asked me to help him lobby to be the minister of Justice. If he wants that job, he has to approach the appointing authority who is president Mugabe.

"I have served the president well and will not be moved from that by chancers like Dinha,  who praise the first family during the day and plot his (Mugabe)'s downfall in the middle of the night together with his fellow successionists," charged Kasukuwere.

He said it was sad that Dinha was at the forefront of mobilising people against him yet he was now working with people from other provinces who want to take power before the 2018 elections and see him as a hindrance to their ambitions. Kasukuwere said the ongoing petitions around the country were not from Zanu-PF structures but were being orchestrated by regime change activists who hold senior positions in the party.

Last week, Dinha described Kasukuwere as a bad salesman who would cost the party if he was left in charge when the nation goes for elections next year.

"I advise the comrades (Kasukuwere and his brother provincial acting chairperson Dickson Mafios) in the interests of the party to voluntarily step aside," said Dinha.