Philip Chiyangwa kicked out of Zanu-PF meeting

CHINHOYI - Aspiring Zanu PF Mashonaland West provincial chairman Philip Chiyangwa was on Saturday ejected out of a provincial executive meeting where he had allegedly gate-crashed.

Sources to Newsday claim Chiyangwa, who had resisted ejection, only agreed to leave after the John Mafa-led executive threatened to unleash the party's security personnel on him.

Chiyangwa confirmed the incident, but hit back at the executive accusing it of "overstaying its mandate" and convening a "kangaroo court" to frustrate his bid to campaign for the chairman's post.

"The meeting was supposed to deal with conference issues, but I was surprised to hear them talking about Chiyangwa not being coopted and that I should leave the room. I only complied because I could see that they were after me because I'm contesting Mafa for the chairmanship," Chiyangwa said.

Chiyangwa labelled Mafa a "non –performer", adding that the current exercise wanted to frustrate all candidates for the provincial posts.

Chiyangwa is set to lock horns with Mafa, Sanyati MP Blessing Geza and Hurungwe West MP Temba Mliswa for the chairman's post. The provincial elections were stopped at the 11th hour last month following allegations of vote-buying by some of the candidates.

Sources said the Saturday meeting was also reported to have instituted a probe team to investigate Hurungwe East MP Sarah Mahoka over allegations of tampering with the party's grassroots structures to influence the outcome of the provincial elections whose date is yet to be announced.

Contacted for comment yesterday, Mafa said: "Chiyangwa may say whatever he wants, but the truth is that the meeting was a provincial executive committee meeting and there are 34 members of the committee and he happened to be the 35th.

"What does the decision of the provincial committee have to do with my performance? If he is a good performer, let's wait for the elections and see if he is rewarded for his so-called good performance," Mafa said.