Zanu-PF 'circus' hits Bulawayo

The factional and succession wars ravaging the post-congress Zanu-PF have now turned into a circus here, with the under-fire Generation 40 (G40) camp yesterday counter-suspending Bulawayo provincial youth chairperson Khumbulani Mpofu who led the purges of their allies earlier this week.

Mpofu and other youth executive members aligned to embattled Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa's faction, held an emergency meeting on Tuesday where they resolved to pass a vote of no confidence on three G40 members - Davis Muhambi, Boniface Mutsure and Maqhawe Sibanda - on allegations of fanning factionalism and disrespecting Zanu-PF's leaders.

But in a clear sign of serious instability in the party, the G40 members led by youth league national commissar Innocent Hamandishe have now since called an executive meeting where they declared that Mpofu had been suspended.

According to some members who attended the meeting that was held on Wednesday night, Hamandishe declared that the decision to expel the three was null and void, while also raising a litany of allegations against Mpofu.

Not surprisingly, Mpofu boycotted the Wednesday meeting.

"It was resolved that for the meantime Anna Mkhuhlwa will be in charge of the province until various allegations against Mpofu are dealt with.

"The meeting was chaired by the deputy chairman Oddy Moyo and it was legal since members of the national executive were present," youth league provincial spokesperson, Colletta Shoko, told the Daily News yesterday.

But another source claimed that the Wednesday meeting and its resolutions were "a mere child's play".

"Who is Hamandishe in the first place? He has no authority to call for a meeting. Funny enough, the youth league chairman immediately sent a lengthy message on our whatsapp forum informing us that the meeting was not sanctioned.

"We all know that it was a clear retaliation by the G40 guys as they are fighting for control in Bulawayo," the source told the Daily News.

Efforts to get a comment on what is really going on from national youth league chairman Pupurai Togarepi yesterday drew a blank as he was not answering his mobile.