Opinion / Columnist
Mugabe to continue Mujuru purge - it is the purge of the tyrant that must concern us!
28 Feb 2015 at 19:19hrs | Views
Mugabe says the purge of Mujuru supporters is not finished.
"Mnangagwa and his group did not try to take over the presidency. It was Mujuru and her people who tried everything," said Mugabe.
"They engaged in arcane rituals such as sacrificing livestock with the help of Nigerians; that's how clever they are and paid for that nonsense."
The threat "to take over the presidency" is Mugabe's electoral nonsensical derivation of Henry Ford's infamous "You can pick any colour you want for your car as long as it is black!" Party members are allowed to contest for any position in the party and to vote for whosoever they please as long as the outcome of their vote does not challenge or threaten Mugabe's own position as the supreme leader whose power and authority is absolute.
And to be absolutely sure that this remains the case at all times Mugabe has rigged the electoral process to ensure the weakest candidates in terms of leadership qualities and/or popular support emerge the victors. Their weakness is his guarantee they are not a threat to him and the knowledge that their own their promotion to him makes them beholden to him – a double guarantee that his power and authority alone will remain absolute.
In 2004 Zanu PF needed to elect someone to replace Simon Muzenda. Mnangagwa had mobilized his supporters and it was clear he was going to beat Joice Mujuru who was gunning for the same position. Mugabe unilaterally amended the party's constitution making it a requirement that at least one of the three top positions of President or two Vice Presidents must be female.
Since the other two positions in the presidium were already filed by males Mnangagwa was ineligible to contest for the third position and so Mai Mujuru won and Mugabe got his wish of having a VP who did not have popular support and was beholden to him for their position.
This time, 2014, the positions were reversed; it was Mai Mujuru who had the popular supporter and she was set to beat Mnangagwa for the position of first Vice President. Mugabe had to stop her winning because she would no longer be beholden to him but the popular party membership. He could not change the party constitution again and demand the only males were to hold the presidium positions – that would have outraged the female supporters and so her accused her of "factionalism", corruption and plotting to assassinate him.
Of course Mai Mujuru is corrupt, how else could she have amassed her fortune valued in billions of dollars! But all her Zanu PF accusers are themselves guilty of the same crime.
The accusation that she plotted to kill Mugabe is nonsense. Why would she want to use force to win the VP position when she had already had the support of nine out of ten provinces guaranteeing her electoral victory? Mugabe has had over six months already to produce evidence of a coup plot and so far has failed to produce one iota of evidence.
The "factionalism" accusation is, yet another Mugabe, nonsense. Mobilizing other party members to support her candidature is not a crime.
Mugabe ended up with two male Vice Presidents, in direct violation of the constitutional amendment he introduced in 2004.
"I don't think we have removed it (constitutional clause on women being vice president), but we have just ignored it," Mugabe said.
"We have appointed vice presidents and we have not appointed a woman because we want to rein in the situation, but it doesn't mean in the future there will be no woman."
In other words, Mugabe is not bound by the law or constitution like everyone else; he makes up new laws at the drop of a hat just to suit himself and will just as readily ignore the same laws as fancy dictates.
The appointment of VP Mnangagwa as first VC last year was supposed to settle the divisive and destabilizing issue of who would succeed Mugabe but Mugabe has once again reopened this sour wound.
"The party has a choice. Not me. I've said I don't choose my successor. Never!" Mugabe said in an interview shown late Friday on state ZBC television ahead of his 91st birthday party.
"I will discuss with others, yes," he added. "A successor can come from any level of the party, but usually the top levels - the central committee, the politburo. It may not be either of the vice presidents.
Many see this as Mugabe political machination to allow him to impose his ambi-tious and erratic wife, Grace, on the party and nation as his successor.
The supposed threat to "take over the presidency" in the Zanu PF electoral context is as nonsensical as "no regime change" in national elections. We are a nation not ruled by law but by the whim of megalomania tyrant.
The country is in this political and economic mess because everything has been corrupted to serve Mugabe's insatiable appetite for political power and influence and material wealth. Until we purge ourselves of this Mugabe and Zanu PF tyrannical dictatorship this nation will never get out of this hell.
Mugabe can go ahead with the purge of Mujuru supporters it is the purge of him and and whatever remains of the Zanu PF dictatorship that Zimbabweans should be concerned about. We must not take our eyes off that ball!
"Mnangagwa and his group did not try to take over the presidency. It was Mujuru and her people who tried everything," said Mugabe.
"They engaged in arcane rituals such as sacrificing livestock with the help of Nigerians; that's how clever they are and paid for that nonsense."
The threat "to take over the presidency" is Mugabe's electoral nonsensical derivation of Henry Ford's infamous "You can pick any colour you want for your car as long as it is black!" Party members are allowed to contest for any position in the party and to vote for whosoever they please as long as the outcome of their vote does not challenge or threaten Mugabe's own position as the supreme leader whose power and authority is absolute.
And to be absolutely sure that this remains the case at all times Mugabe has rigged the electoral process to ensure the weakest candidates in terms of leadership qualities and/or popular support emerge the victors. Their weakness is his guarantee they are not a threat to him and the knowledge that their own their promotion to him makes them beholden to him – a double guarantee that his power and authority alone will remain absolute.
In 2004 Zanu PF needed to elect someone to replace Simon Muzenda. Mnangagwa had mobilized his supporters and it was clear he was going to beat Joice Mujuru who was gunning for the same position. Mugabe unilaterally amended the party's constitution making it a requirement that at least one of the three top positions of President or two Vice Presidents must be female.
Since the other two positions in the presidium were already filed by males Mnangagwa was ineligible to contest for the third position and so Mai Mujuru won and Mugabe got his wish of having a VP who did not have popular support and was beholden to him for their position.
This time, 2014, the positions were reversed; it was Mai Mujuru who had the popular supporter and she was set to beat Mnangagwa for the position of first Vice President. Mugabe had to stop her winning because she would no longer be beholden to him but the popular party membership. He could not change the party constitution again and demand the only males were to hold the presidium positions – that would have outraged the female supporters and so her accused her of "factionalism", corruption and plotting to assassinate him.
Of course Mai Mujuru is corrupt, how else could she have amassed her fortune valued in billions of dollars! But all her Zanu PF accusers are themselves guilty of the same crime.
The "factionalism" accusation is, yet another Mugabe, nonsense. Mobilizing other party members to support her candidature is not a crime.
Mugabe ended up with two male Vice Presidents, in direct violation of the constitutional amendment he introduced in 2004.
"I don't think we have removed it (constitutional clause on women being vice president), but we have just ignored it," Mugabe said.
"We have appointed vice presidents and we have not appointed a woman because we want to rein in the situation, but it doesn't mean in the future there will be no woman."
In other words, Mugabe is not bound by the law or constitution like everyone else; he makes up new laws at the drop of a hat just to suit himself and will just as readily ignore the same laws as fancy dictates.
The appointment of VP Mnangagwa as first VC last year was supposed to settle the divisive and destabilizing issue of who would succeed Mugabe but Mugabe has once again reopened this sour wound.
"The party has a choice. Not me. I've said I don't choose my successor. Never!" Mugabe said in an interview shown late Friday on state ZBC television ahead of his 91st birthday party.
"I will discuss with others, yes," he added. "A successor can come from any level of the party, but usually the top levels - the central committee, the politburo. It may not be either of the vice presidents.
Many see this as Mugabe political machination to allow him to impose his ambi-tious and erratic wife, Grace, on the party and nation as his successor.
The supposed threat to "take over the presidency" in the Zanu PF electoral context is as nonsensical as "no regime change" in national elections. We are a nation not ruled by law but by the whim of megalomania tyrant.
The country is in this political and economic mess because everything has been corrupted to serve Mugabe's insatiable appetite for political power and influence and material wealth. Until we purge ourselves of this Mugabe and Zanu PF tyrannical dictatorship this nation will never get out of this hell.
Mugabe can go ahead with the purge of Mujuru supporters it is the purge of him and and whatever remains of the Zanu PF dictatorship that Zimbabweans should be concerned about. We must not take our eyes off that ball!
Source - Wilbert Mukori
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