'Mugabe's silence recipe for bloodbath'

PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe's continued silence while his Cabinet ministers and the military heckle could lead to a bloodbath if not checked, Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans' Association secretary-general Victor Matemadanda has said.

Matemadanda accused Higher Education minister Jonathan Moyo of plotting to provoke the country's military in a factional move to create chaos in the country.

"How does a Cabinet minister or anyone for that matter get away with calling a five-star general an idiot? It is unheard of.

Moyo is provoking a man who has thousands of soldiers under his command. He wants the army to react so that he can cry foul.

"It is a G40 plan to cause chaos in the country. Moyo has a personal problem with Vice-President Emmerson Mnangagwa and Commander of the Defence Forces General Constantino Chiwenga. Zimbabweans are not party to their personal dispute if there is one, but now he wants to bring these disagreements into the realm of national politics and drag everyone into it," Matemadanda said.

Moyo has received brickbats over his criticism of a government maize production programme known as Command Agriculture that he has derisively labelled "Command-Ugly-Culture".

Chiwenga accused Moyo of leaking Cabinet secrets and turning into a mole against the government, adding "but I think he has got to where we wanted him" in a chilling warning of unspecified action. Moyo did not take kindly to that, describing Chiwenga as an "idiot".

Moyo added: "Where has Chiwenga wanted me to be? Where he can harm me because I have refused to support a subversive succession scheme that is unconstitutionally targeting President Mugabe?"

Mugabe, on the other hand, has publicly shown an indifferent attitude to the spat that has also sucked in Mnangagwa, to whose defence Chiwenga has jumped. Matemadanda said Mugabe's attitude was a cause for concern to the former fighters.

"Chiwenga was within his rights that when a Cabinet minister takes to public platforms to denigrate government policies and openly attacks the country's VP, it becomes a national security issue. The President cannot watch in silence.

"It is most disconcerting that the President has decided to act as if he is on leave. The President wants people to kill each other first before he acts. He wants a bloodbath," said Matemadanda.

The public spat is part of the intriguing internal struggle for power currently engulfing Mugabe's Zanu-PF party with two factions at each other's throats eyeing the President's throne.