News / National
'It's not cold outside Zanu-PF'
08 Dec 2015 at 09:52hrs | Views
Former Energy minister Dzikamai Mavhaire - who was fired early this year from Zanu-PF for the second time in just over two decades - has indicated that the bad old days he faced outside Zanu-PF before were a thing of the past now.
He was sacked on allegations of working in cahoots with former Vice-President Joice Mujuru, to assassinate President Robert Mugabe a charge he vehemently denies.
The pint-sized politician was famed for his bold "Mugabe must go" declaration that saw him expelled from Zanu-PF. The statement, made in Parliament in the mid 1990s, found no takers in party, whose rank and file paid obeisance to Mugabe.
Mavhaire fell on hard times after being reduced from a chauffeur-driven man to a pedestrian and lived from hand to mouth, selling oranges at Mucheke Bus terminus, as he wondered like a lost sheep in political wilderness.
The former Masvingo senator, who is playing his cards close to his chest, opened up to a Masvingo privately-owned weekly, saying the bad old days he faced outside Zanu-PF before were a thing of the past now.
He is quoted as saying that his sacking this time around did not leave him poor unlike in the past, where he turned to ox-drawn farming.
"Look at me closely, I have already gained weight. It is not cold outside Zanu-PF. In fact, it is even warm here. Do not listen to people who have never been fired. I know what it means to be fired from Zanu-PF," he said, while posing at his farm with ripe green pepper.
It seems experience taught him well on the need to invest other than make politics a career.
"I am now a full time farmer," said the maverick politician, who is now linked to a political project, People First, believed to be the brainchild of Mujuru.
Knowing Mavhaire as a shrewd politician, who can manoeuvre out of political whirlwinds, many believe he will bounce back to political stardom, as anything can change overnight in politics - but this time not in Zanu-PF.
"I will not go back to Zanu-PF again . . . It is no longer possible this time around," he said.
Whether the People First project would succeed in re-visioning his drama-filled political career; only time will tell. Many wait with bated breath on his next move and whether or not he will get another "Lazarus moment".
He was sacked on allegations of working in cahoots with former Vice-President Joice Mujuru, to assassinate President Robert Mugabe a charge he vehemently denies.
The pint-sized politician was famed for his bold "Mugabe must go" declaration that saw him expelled from Zanu-PF. The statement, made in Parliament in the mid 1990s, found no takers in party, whose rank and file paid obeisance to Mugabe.
Mavhaire fell on hard times after being reduced from a chauffeur-driven man to a pedestrian and lived from hand to mouth, selling oranges at Mucheke Bus terminus, as he wondered like a lost sheep in political wilderness.
The former Masvingo senator, who is playing his cards close to his chest, opened up to a Masvingo privately-owned weekly, saying the bad old days he faced outside Zanu-PF before were a thing of the past now.
He is quoted as saying that his sacking this time around did not leave him poor unlike in the past, where he turned to ox-drawn farming.
It seems experience taught him well on the need to invest other than make politics a career.
"I am now a full time farmer," said the maverick politician, who is now linked to a political project, People First, believed to be the brainchild of Mujuru.
Knowing Mavhaire as a shrewd politician, who can manoeuvre out of political whirlwinds, many believe he will bounce back to political stardom, as anything can change overnight in politics - but this time not in Zanu-PF.
"I will not go back to Zanu-PF again . . . It is no longer possible this time around," he said.
Whether the People First project would succeed in re-visioning his drama-filled political career; only time will tell. Many wait with bated breath on his next move and whether or not he will get another "Lazarus moment".
Source - newsday
