Kasukuwere guns for Mnangagwa?

EXILED former Cabinet minister Saviour Kasukuwere has claimed that it was time for him to make "difficult decisions" to "save the revolutionary movement" and to act on the injustices that President Emmerson Mnangagwa has heaped on the G40 cabal.

Kasukuwere alleged that Mnangagwa was dishing out goodies to former MDC members who defected to the ruling party while the ill-treatment of many within Zanu-PF was "beyond imagination".

"This issue of ill-treatment and injustice to cadres affects one's conscience everyday. I receive calls and pleas from cadres on a daily basis. It weighs heavily, therefore, that a solution should be found for our comrades to live their normal lives without victimisation and ostracism," he said in a statement yesterday.

"Comrades, it appears those who have turned from the MDC to the current system are actually enjoying to the detriment of those who stood with the party during difficult times. Some have become ambassadors and commissioners, board directors and beneficiaries of the State. The committed party cadres are today running and hiding from fellow comrades."

Kasukuwere said Zanu-PF members had turned against each other.

"Someone should take the lead and search for a solution. The comrades I met, and those I shall meet in future are affected. Freedom and peace will always come at a cost. I have said before that painful decisions have to be taken and the process has begun," he said.

"We are Zimbabweans and we have to raise our voices now. Comrades, we have emotions and different ideas on how to tackle this challenge. I have laid out the crisis as I see it, and am not afraid to confront it."

Kasukuwere went into self-imposed exile in November 2017 after a coup which ousted the late former President Robert Mugabe from power.

The former Zanu-PF commissar said several former ministers and government officials who served under Mugabe were now being treated as Zanu-PF outcasts and many of them had been arraigned before the courts on "spurious" charges.

"That has to end. We all carry deep and painful wounds of the treatment that has been meted out by fellow comrades to many of us who loved the party and respected President Mugabe," he said.

"Some have lost their beloved ones, some sacked from their work, some thrown out of the party for having supported Mugabe as our President, some are in exile and some live with exclusion and victimisation to this day.

"Some are (before) the courts and paying huge amounts to defend themselves on spurious charges. Some have had their land taken away and many are living in fear."

Kasukuwere said Zanu-PF should not be harming its children and leaders that served under Mugabe.

"We have to ask these difficult questions and hopefully find an answer. Is this the Zanu-PF party we served so loyally? Is this the party of our fathers and mothers who sacrificed for our freedom? Comrades, I will not bore you with more details and lamentations. Difficult decisions have to be made and in the process, we should now consult wide and far on how to resolve this deadly conundrum," he said.

But Zanu-PF spokesperson Christopher Mutsvangwa dismissed Kasukuwere's claims in a Press statement yesterday.

"They can continue whistling in the dark of political wilderness. All the blind and deaf notice of serious-minded Zimbabweans should focus on the record of unprecedented national progress. South Africa is proving to be a barren hunting ground for attention-seeking Kasukuwere," Mutsvangwa said in the statement.

"Kasukuwere is just a mere youth when it comes to Zanu-PF affairs. What does he know about Zanu-PF? The problem with Kasukuwere is that he has no humility, after what he did under Mugabe's rule," Mutsvangwa later told NewsDay.

"It means he does not learn. He is overambitious. He learns nothing. The threats that he is making are blusters from someone who has fallen completely on the wayside."