News / National
Mugabe now lonely and isolated
31 May 2015 at 08:59hrs | Views
PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe is now casting a lone figure at the helm of both the country and Zanu-PF following the axing of most of his long time liberation war comrades from the party.
Zanu-PF recently fired former Vice-President Joice Mujuru, former presidential affairs minister Didymus Mutasa, former party spokesperson Rugare Gumbo and many more party bigwigs with liberation war credentials.
Of his old comrades, only VP Emmerson Mnangagwa remains close after his elevation to the post at the party's December congress. Most of those surrounding the 91-year old leader are newcomers with little if any liberation war history.
The new faces in the party's influential positions continue to push for the victimisation of those who used to have senior positions both in party and government, with the latest being the 87 officials who were suspended from the party as announced on Thursday by spokesperson Simon Khaya-Moyo.
Mujuru, Mutasa and Gumbo, together with many other party heavy weights, MPs and provincial executives were either fired or suspended on allegations of plotting against Mugabe. The disgruntled members are now linked to a new movement, People First, which aims to present Mugabe with a formidable challenge in the 2018 general elections.
People First said Mugabe had been misled into ditching his old comrades by newcomers who were pursuing their own agendas such as securing power for the Young Turks who call themselves Generation 40.
Before the departure of Mutasa, Mugabe himself once lamented in an interview with ZBC that he was lonely and had his presidential affairs minister as the only companion in his Cabinet.
Zanu-PF recently fired former Vice-President Joice Mujuru, former presidential affairs minister Didymus Mutasa, former party spokesperson Rugare Gumbo and many more party bigwigs with liberation war credentials.
Of his old comrades, only VP Emmerson Mnangagwa remains close after his elevation to the post at the party's December congress. Most of those surrounding the 91-year old leader are newcomers with little if any liberation war history.
Mujuru, Mutasa and Gumbo, together with many other party heavy weights, MPs and provincial executives were either fired or suspended on allegations of plotting against Mugabe. The disgruntled members are now linked to a new movement, People First, which aims to present Mugabe with a formidable challenge in the 2018 general elections.
People First said Mugabe had been misled into ditching his old comrades by newcomers who were pursuing their own agendas such as securing power for the Young Turks who call themselves Generation 40.
Before the departure of Mutasa, Mugabe himself once lamented in an interview with ZBC that he was lonely and had his presidential affairs minister as the only companion in his Cabinet.
Source - thestandard
