Fake love for Mugabe

Zanu-PF yesterday admitted that President Robert Mugabe was a victim of lies with power-hungry individuals showing him feigned love while at the same time confirming that there was an agenda to destroy the faction-riddled party from within.

The Daily News last week revealed  information that Mugabe was being fed lies by the Zanu-PF factions viciously fighting to succeed him, a fact which the party has since confirmed.

Rugare Gumbo, the Zanu-PF spokesman, said in a damning statement that the 90-year-old president was receiving fake love from "regime change" elements within the 51-year-old party keen to destroy the ruling party before national elections in 2018.

Amid serious infighting and mudslinging spurred by Mugabe's advanced age and the entry of his wife Grace into national politics, the ruling party is fast descending into chaos.

On Sunday, Mugabe flew into a storm from a four-day State visit in China, and frantically tried to put down simmering tensions between two major camps vying to succeed him, one reportedly led by vice president Joice Mujuru and the other by Justice minister Emmerson Mnangagwa.

While Mugabe managed to quell tempers at the Harare International Airport, the party spokesman said yesterday the president should be wary of persons who want to divert his attention from key issues affecting the nation's economy.

"Anyone who misdirects their focus to dwell on petty, narrow and immature politics is not only showing disrespect to president Mugabe who is genuinely determined to improve the welfare of the people, but is on the wrong side of history and should be ashamed of himself or herself," Gumbo said in the statement.

Mugabe won re-election last July but his MDC opponent, Morgan Tsvangirai, accused him of improper behaviour in the conduct of the election.

Mugabe is running again in 2018, and insiders and other strategists consider the veteran Zanu-PF leader vulnerable.

"Zanu-PF won a historic 5-year-mandate to address critical matters of national interest and that is what we should all focus on," Gumbo said.

"Indeed we must all be wary of elements that feign love for president Mugabe and Zanu-PF yet their real agenda is to divert president Mugabe's attention from the core business of government in order to create problems for the party and for president Mugabe in 2018 when elections are due."

Repeating assertions by the Zanu-PF leader that there were "weevils" out to cause divisions in the party, Gumbo implied in the statement that there was a plot to topple Mugabe and block Grace's ascendancy.

Patrick Zhuwawo, Mugabe's nephew, told Mugabe's welcoming party at the Harare International Airport last weekend that  Harare province had asked him to "accommodate" the First Family in party structures in Mashonaland West, Mugabe's home province.

Mugabe said no one had the right to make that call. The call was reportedly made by Harare South MP and Zanu-PF provincial commissar, Shadreck Mashayamombe, who denies the claim.

"We are all in Harare; it is not your city alone, we all belong to Harare," Mugabe said.

"I am saying so because I heard someone sending my nephew to go and tell Mai Mugabe to leave Harare.

"I want to hear why she should leave Harare, going where? I would also want to know where the emperor of Harare (Mashayamombe) got his powers from," Mugabe was quoted as saying by the State media to rapturous applause amid shouts of "weevils".

The Zanu-PF Harare province led by Amos Midzi has come under attack for allegedly resisting the ascendancy of Grace Mugabe, but Midzi has staunchly rejected the accusations. Midzi and the Harare province claim these are part of the lies being fed to Mugabe in a deliberate attempt to make him angry.

The province reportedly backs the Mujuru faction.

"We have always known that there is a regime change agenda in place, only this time it is being pushed by our own people under the guise of loving president Mugabe," Gumbo said.

"This is unacceptable behaviour which smacks of deceit and a very high level of wickedness. "Thank God the Chinese trip comes as a wake-up call and enjoins all of us to focus on real issues and to give president Mugabe the support he needs in order to steer this country in the right economic direction in keeping with our promise of July 31st 2013."

Mugabe returned from his 13th trip to China last weekend where he clinched investment deals for energy, infrastructure development and transport sectors in his impoverished state.

One of Africa's longest-serving leaders and his ministers penned various agreements in Beijing which remain shrouded in secrecy.

The deals come amid a deepening liquidity crunch, high unemployment and little economic activity.

The Zanu-PF strongman has called an urgent politburo meeting to deal with the escalating infighting. The Daily News is reliably informed that the Mujuru faction is keen on giving Mugabe the real story behind the serious infighting.

Caught up in unprecedented fights that threaten to split the party along two factions before its December congress, Zanu-PF has shifted its focus from the economy to deal with simmering tensions within its ranks, analysts say. The government's economic blueprint, the Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable Socio-Economic Transformation (ZimAsset), remains a pipe-dream, with economists arguing that unless there is huge capital injection, it will remain pie in the sky.

After congratulating Mugabe for  "his successful and historic visit to China which culminated in the signing of nine crucial deals and MoUs between Zimbabwe and China", Gumbo said the deals were a timely arrangement that has come at a very critical moment "as we forge ahead with the implementation of ZimAsset."

"This is all the more reason why everyone's focus should be on the implementation of government initiatives for the good of our people," he said.