Mutsvangwa lash out at Mugabe for plundering State resources

OUTSPOKEN war veterans' leader, Christopher Mutsvangwa has lashed out at President Robert Mugabe for allegedly plundering State resources trying to settle "senseless apostolic sect disputes" and allowing his hangers-on, led by First Lady Grace Mugabe, to go on a land-grabbing spree at a time the nation looked up to him for good governance.

Mutsvangwa - a former Cabinet minister and firebrand Mugabe supporter before his recent expulsion from the ruling party and government - told NewsDay yesterday that Grace faction had reduced the ruling party into a "mythic-chasing"(sic) group.

"Why (does) HE (His Excellency) waste State resources and electorate capital to go to arbitrate for hours on Masowe shrine disputes? [The] voting electorate [is] being blatantly cheated out of good governance by G40. Grace's claim to political fame is only her conjugal link to Mugabe," he said.

Mutsvangwa singled out a prominent preacher, whom he described as Grace's favoured pastor, saying church leaders had now become popular as if they "ordained the 2013 election".

"Lament to a revolutionary party reduced to mythical incantations that pursue unabashed avarice, while national hopes are dashed into abject and grinding poverty. All trooping to State House, as if the 2013 election was ordained by prophets," he said.

Last month, Mugabe was forced to address a rally in Bindura well into the night after spending the better part of the day trying to find a solution over the alleged abduction of Johanne Masowe Vadzidzi Apostolic sect patriarch, Mudzidzi Wimbo.

Mutsvangwa claimed the G40 faction, under Mugabe's direction, was plotting a systematic removal of all war veterans from both government and ruling party structures.

"(Politburo member Jonathan) Moyo openly gloats that he hijacked the landslide victory to pursue a purge of war veteran Vice-President (Joice) Mujuru and now Emmerson Mnangagwa, (Zimbabwe Defence Forces Commander, General Constantino) Chiwenga and all the war hierarchy. Once a war deserter and traitor, always one," he continued.

"So petty and parochial, Moyo's grudge stems from the Mgagao (Declaration) and how it dethroned Ndabaningi Sithole. Moyo recalls how he was so near to being a top Zanla general back in 1975, as a Ndau or Ndau-sponsored kingpin at Mgagao. He thinks Zanla is a clan mercenary band and not revolutionary army."

Mutsvangwa's comments come in the wake of claims that Local Government minister Saviour Kasukuwere was involved in fraudulent land deals the Urban Development Corporation.

"A cluster of hoodlums morphed into land barons and their Pentecostal preacher pretenders, who sell heaven to souls, while their dirty hands help themselves to ill-gotten material gains on solid earth," he continued.

"Imagine if war veterans had done the same in 1980. We had total power and the populace was eating out of our hands. G40 latches on to tenuous blessings of a marriage certificate and loots urban land.

"Totally unbothered to create industries that create the value of the urban land they now crave. Why don't G40 allocate themselves parcels of housing land in Mbire for Kasukuwere, Tsholotsho for Jonathan Moyo and (Patrick) Zhuwao in Zvimba?"

Moyo could not be reached for comment yesterday, as he was reportedly attending a Cabinet meeting.

The Higher Education minister and his Youth ministry counterpart Zhuwao have been linked to G40.