'Mnangagwa let us down'

FORMER Zanu-PF youth leader and founder of the Front for Economic Emancipation of Zimbabwe (FEEZ), Godfrey Tsenengamu has accused President Emmerson Mnangagwa of letting down Zimbabweans and other individuals who put their heads on the block for him to succeed the late former President Robert Mugabe.

Mnangagwa ascended to power through a November 17, 2017 military coup which toppled Mugabe.

Speaking during an interview with Alpha Media Holdings chairman Trevor Ncube on the platform In Conversation with Trevor, Tsenengamu said at the time he believed Mnangagwa was the only top party leader with capacity to end high-profile corruption in the country.

"I was clear from the time Mai (Joice) Mujuru went down saying I think the one who is going to be the next president was Emmerson Mnangagwa and it was a taboo to say that," he said.

"Where I was coming from in Mashonaland Central there were a lot of fights that were going on within Zanu-PF, the maZezurus versus the Karangas, so naturally I was not expected to be siding with the Zezurus.

"When I was looking at Mnangagwa, I was not seeing a Karanga. I was seeing somebody with the potential of become a national leader, so I did not subscribe to this notion of tribal supremacy as it was happening in Zanu-PF.

"I got myself suspended because I had used the church platform to bring Mnangagwa at Gora to the late VaWimbo. By then the provincial gurus had said Mnangagwa should not come to Mashonaland Central. I thought that Mnangagwa deserved to be given a chance to prove what he had said that he was a better leader and I was looking at him as somebody who was very loyal for some time to the then President Robert Mugabe and I thought that he had learnt a number of things from the way Mugabe did his things, what he did right and what he did wrong.

"I also thought that maybe he was going to be the bridge between the old madhalas (guard) and the young people coming as a transitional leader. In my mind, I would say that if Mugabe steps down, Mnangagwa would come in and after him I had two options between Saviour Kasukuwere and Walter Mzembi."

In 2020, Tsenengamu was suspended together with Zanu-PF youth secretary Lewis Matutu for indiscipline after they named Kuda Tagwirei, Tafadzwa Musarara and Billy Rautenbach as having captured State institutions.

He said that was when he realised that the Mnangagwa he vouched for pre-November 2017 and the one who got into office where two different people.

"From our engagements pre-November 2017, he would appear like someone who was sincere and when he got into power I expected that he was going to keep his word, he was going to do as we had been discussing before he got into power.

"When I realised that this was not happening, at first I thought that those who were around him were the problem, but I said, no we are going into the same trap or scenario like we did with Mugabe when we thought that he himself was okay, only those who were surrounding him were the problem.

"But I said no, these people who are surrounding Mnangagwa did not come from heaven, he appointed them and he is comfortable working with them, he is pushing through his agenda and whatever that he seeks to do through them," he added.

Tsenengamu launched the FEEZ party in 2021.

Mnangagwa's government has attracted criticism from politicians and analysts who have described it as incompetent, corrupt and authoritarian.

Recently, Mnangagwa and his family were implicated in a gold smuggling and money laundering scam exposed in the documentary, Gold Mafia, aired by Al Jazeera.