Calls for Mutasa to be expelled

Zanu-PF Manicaland Province wants former national secretary for administration Didymus Mutasa expelled for his continued denigration of the revolutionary party and its First Secretary and leader President Mugabe.

The call comes amid reports attributed to Mutasa in which he allegedly accused the party leadership of being undemocratic. He is also lobbying Sadc to discredit the outcome of the 6th National People's Congress.

Acting Zanu-pf chairman for Manicaland Samuel Undenge yesterday said there were sentiments in the province that Mutasa be censured as his utterances did not show remorse.

"It is true that a lot of people want the province to act and we will soon meet as the provincial co-ordinating committee to deliberate on Mutasa's issue and several others affecting the province," Undenge said.

Minister of State for Manicaland Provincial Affairs Mandi Chimene said there was consensus in the province that Mutasa was now renegade.

"Mutasa has expelled himself and we just need as a province to formalise that expulsion. We are going to discuss that issue at our next provincial meeting because it is clear that Mutasa is offside," said Chimene.

Chimene said Mutasa should be expelled despite the directive from zanu-pf national political commissar Saviour Kasukuwere for provinces to stop further suspensions of party executives.

"Kasukuwere is right in what he said but as a province we will highlight our concerns to the party leadership. The leadership will then decide on the issue. We will wait for our leader and we will definitely present our sentiments to him when he comes," Chimene said.

President Mugabe is currently on his annual leave in the Far East until January.

The former zanu-pf secretary for administration is said to have roped in MDC-T and a Western-funded international NGO to subvert the will of the people so that he could be restored to his former positions in the party and the Government.

Mutasa is said to have used his contacts in MDC-T to get the issue of his failure to land a Central Committee seat and dismissal from Government tabled at a meeting of the Socialist International Council, which met at the United Nations Headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland from December 12 to 13.

The Socialist International Council meeting was convened to discuss high levels of insecurity and threats to world peace.

Zanu PF is not a member of the Socialist International Council though the MPLA of Angola, Frelimo of Mozambique, SWAPO of Namibia, ANC (South Africa), and Chama Cha Mapinduzi (Tanzania) are members along with the MDC, the Botswana Democratic Party and Patriotic Front of Zambia which are listed as consultative parties.

Mutasa, who is in India where his wife is receiving treatment, is reported to have begun calling secretaries-general of sister liberation movements in southern Africa to make the same claims he had made to South African president Jacob Zuma, whom he lobbied, saying former VP Dr Joice Mujuru, several ministers and himself had been unjustly ejected from Zanu-PF and Government.

In an interview with the Independent of South Africa, Mutasa urged President Zuma to alert other regional governments about Zanu-PF's Congress where he and Dr Mujuru, among other officials, were ejected.

He claimed that their sacking was unprocedural and undemocratic. Ironically Dr Mujuru who lost not only her party and Government positions but also her parliamentary seat, has since accepted her fate and congratulated the leadership elected at Congress.