Former bigwigs seek Zanu-PF re-admission

The fall of Zimbabwe's long-serving president, Robert Mugabe, appears to have given hope to sacked former Zanu-PF stalwarts who are now retracing their footsteps back to the former liberation movement.

There is renewed hope among the former Zanu-PF senior officials since the appointment of  Emmerson Mnangagwa as first secretary.

Barely a week after former Masvingo provincial affairs minister Kudakwashe Bhasikiti signalled his intention to rejoin Zanu-PF, another ex –official, Claudius Makova, has written a letter seeking re-admission into the party.

And this is at the expense of the troubled Zimbabwe People First which was formed after Mugabe hounded several officials from Zanu-PF on untested allegations of wanting to topple him in the run-up to the party's December 2014 congress.

In a letter addressed to Zanu-PF's deputy secretary for administration July Moyo, Makova said now that Mugabe is out of the picture he feels at ease to rejoin the ruling party that is now led by Mnangagwa.

"The removal of the G40 cabal and the removal of one centre of power from Zanu-PF give me enough confidence to revert to my party and continue to fight for the total emancipation of our people in our people-driven party Zanu-PF.

"My motivation is to remain a servant of the people in a party that I have served for the greater part of my life," said Makova.

The outspoken politician along with Bhasikiti attended a Zanu-PF Masvingo provincial coordinating committee (PCC) meeting over the weekend.

The two politicians have stood together in the last three years jumping from one political party to another, but never really fitting in.

Zanu-PF Masvingo province spokesperson Ronald Ndava confirmed that Makova and Bhasikiti attended a PCC meeting.

"We were with them. As an executive we are going to sit down and discuss the way forward, but we are a big family. A committee will sit down and decide what we can do. It will be a collective decision," Ndava told the Daily News.

One of the founding elders of the ZPF and former Cabinet minister in Mugabe's government - Didymus Mutasa who was also sacked from Zanu-PF in the run up to December 2014 congress - said it was time that both Makova and Bhasikiti found  a permanent home.

"Now that there is freedom in Zimbabwe let them do as they please, but let them not jump from one party to another. They jumped from (the then ZPF led by Joice) Mujuru and then came to us and they jumped from us to join the (Zimbabwe People First led by Agrippa) Mutambara, now they are going back to Zanu-PF. It's very funny," said Mutasa.

Makova and Bhasikiti's days in the political wilderness were largely because they had fallen out of favour with Mugabe, whose long political career came to an end on November 21 when he resigned ahead of an impeachment by Parliament.

Along with Bhasikiti, Mutasa and Rugare Gumbo, Makova parted ways with Mujuru early this year and retained the name of the party that they formed after a bitter expulsion from Zanu-PF.

It was not long before ZPF split again in the middle and Makova and Bhasikiti dumped Mutasa and Gumbo to follow retired brigadier general Mutambara, who kept the name ZPF.

History repeated itself again as the two politicians crossed swords with Mutambara over a leadership raw.

"I have already resigned from ZPF where I was now serving as the secretary-general of the party. I find no reason to be serving in any other party when Zanu-PF has reverted to its original ideals by the "operation restore legacy," said Bhasikiti as he seeks to rejoin longtime comrades at Zanu-PF.

Just like Bhasikiti, Makova in his letter to Mutasa and Gumbo said the two co-leaders of ZPF should seriously consider closing shop and returning home to Zanu-PF.

"It was my great expectation that we should have collectively closed shop or disbanded our party ZPF and go back to Zanu-PF where we originally all belong," said Makova.