News / National
Fired Mutasa seeks Zuma mediation over ouster
15 Dec 2014 at 07:11hrs | Views
Sacked Presidential Affairs minister and former Zanu-PF secretary for administration Didymus Mutasa has reportedly sought the intervention of South African President Jacob Zuma to resolve his fall-out with President Robert Mugabe.
According to a South African publication The Sunday Independent, Mutasa currently in India, seeking medical attention, described the just ended Zanu-PF congress as 'illegal'.
The disgraced and self-styled Manicaland political godfather yesterday refused to comment on the matter.
"I have said I do not want to talk to newspapers. Hamuna kuzvinzwa here (have you not understood)," Mutasa retorted when contacted on his mobile phone.
Zuma's spokesperson, Marc Maharaj, could neither deny nor confirm whether Mutasa had indeed made contact with Zuma.
"Please send your inquiry by email so I can seek clarification on the matter so that I can give you a comprehensive response," Maharaj said yesterday in a telephone interview with The Zimbabwe Mail.
He had, however, not responded at the time of going to press.
The paper claimed Mutasa said his ouster, as well as that of former Vice-President Joice Mujuru, from both the party and government was 'undemocratic'.
"We refuse to be chucked out of Zanu-PF which some of us have been in for 57 years," Mutasa said on Saturday from India, where his wife is having medical treatment.
"We fought for 'one man, one vote' majority rule, which is not provided for in the current Zanu-PF constitution adopted at the 6th congress," Mutasa said.
"It gives all votes to the president alone and violates the supreme law of the country. It is therefore null and void, all that transpired at the 6th congress," Mutasa was quoted as having told the paper.
"We call on Zanu-PF to work as it was before the 6th congress which was itself unlawful".
"We appeal to Sadc (Southern African Development Community) to adopt our position (and) to Zimbabweans to remain peaceful as we strive for the democracy that we fought for".
Mutasa, Mujuru, ex-Labour minister Nicholas Goche, and expelled Zanu-PF spokesperson Rugare Gumbo stand accused of a sinister and elaborate plot to assassinate President Robert Mugabe in the run-up to the former guerrilla movement's elective congress that ended a week ago in Harare.
The quartet has dismissed the charges as "political mudslinging" but were nonetheless fired from their government positions mainly for incompetence and "conduct that is not consistent with her official duties" on the part of Mujuru.
President Mugabe currently chairs regional power broker Sadc but South Africa was the chief mediator in the political crisis that gripped Zimbabwe for the better part of the last decade and half.
Mutasa is a veteran of the liberation struggle and was alleged to have been part of a faction within the ruling party reportedly then led by Mujuru and seeking to topple President Mugabe by foul means.
He was among a litany of party officials including nine provincial party chairpersons as well as cabinet ministers who were "baby-dumped" at the ruling party's 6th elective congress in a clean-up exercise that left political watchers and ordinary Zimbabweans confounded.
According to a South African publication The Sunday Independent, Mutasa currently in India, seeking medical attention, described the just ended Zanu-PF congress as 'illegal'.
The disgraced and self-styled Manicaland political godfather yesterday refused to comment on the matter.
"I have said I do not want to talk to newspapers. Hamuna kuzvinzwa here (have you not understood)," Mutasa retorted when contacted on his mobile phone.
Zuma's spokesperson, Marc Maharaj, could neither deny nor confirm whether Mutasa had indeed made contact with Zuma.
"Please send your inquiry by email so I can seek clarification on the matter so that I can give you a comprehensive response," Maharaj said yesterday in a telephone interview with The Zimbabwe Mail.
He had, however, not responded at the time of going to press.
The paper claimed Mutasa said his ouster, as well as that of former Vice-President Joice Mujuru, from both the party and government was 'undemocratic'.
"We refuse to be chucked out of Zanu-PF which some of us have been in for 57 years," Mutasa said on Saturday from India, where his wife is having medical treatment.
"We fought for 'one man, one vote' majority rule, which is not provided for in the current Zanu-PF constitution adopted at the 6th congress," Mutasa said.
"It gives all votes to the president alone and violates the supreme law of the country. It is therefore null and void, all that transpired at the 6th congress," Mutasa was quoted as having told the paper.
"We call on Zanu-PF to work as it was before the 6th congress which was itself unlawful".
"We appeal to Sadc (Southern African Development Community) to adopt our position (and) to Zimbabweans to remain peaceful as we strive for the democracy that we fought for".
Mutasa, Mujuru, ex-Labour minister Nicholas Goche, and expelled Zanu-PF spokesperson Rugare Gumbo stand accused of a sinister and elaborate plot to assassinate President Robert Mugabe in the run-up to the former guerrilla movement's elective congress that ended a week ago in Harare.
The quartet has dismissed the charges as "political mudslinging" but were nonetheless fired from their government positions mainly for incompetence and "conduct that is not consistent with her official duties" on the part of Mujuru.
President Mugabe currently chairs regional power broker Sadc but South Africa was the chief mediator in the political crisis that gripped Zimbabwe for the better part of the last decade and half.
Mutasa is a veteran of the liberation struggle and was alleged to have been part of a faction within the ruling party reportedly then led by Mujuru and seeking to topple President Mugabe by foul means.
He was among a litany of party officials including nine provincial party chairpersons as well as cabinet ministers who were "baby-dumped" at the ruling party's 6th elective congress in a clean-up exercise that left political watchers and ordinary Zimbabweans confounded.
Source - Zim Mail
