Cabinet ministers on knife edge

Cabinet ministers and MPs  who sabotaging  activities initiated by Zanu PF  the youth league risk losing their positions ahead of the 2018 elections.

Land and Resettlement minister Douglas Mombeshora, Public Service minister Prisca Mupfumira, Mines minister Walter Chidakwa and Home Affairs minister Ignatius Chombo are the targets.

The warning came from Zanu PF deputy youth secretary Kudzanai Chipanga while addressing party youths at Chinhoyi University of Technology on Saturday.

Chipanga's remarks came amid reports that some Cabinet ministers and Zanu PF MPs were plotting to sabotage the one-million-men march planned by the youth league next month, by either refusing to fund it or attaching a factional element to discredit the event.

The march, according to the organisers, was in solidarity with President Robert Mugabe's leadership, although some party insiders claimed it was meant to spite Vice-President Emmerson Mnangagwa's bid to succeed the veteran politician.

Some party sources still contend the march was being co-ordinated by Zanu PF's G40, as a factional reaction to Mugabe's meeting with war veterans early this month.

Chipanga, believed to be part of G40 — which is purportedly led by First Lady Grace Mugabe, has clashed with some war veterans reportedly rooting for Mnangagwa's bid to succeed Mugabe in the intricate Zanu PF succession race.

"There are some MPs who want to be clever by distancing themselves during youth activities like the march, but want the help of the same youths when election time comes because they would be counting on us to campaign for them . . . This time, we are going to vet who was co-operating with us. Some will fall by the wayside," Chipanga warned.