Zanu-PF chefs ordered to don party regalia

President Emmerson Mnangagwa has ordered Zanu-PF bigwigs who are employed at the party headquarters to wear party regalia when on official duty.

He told the Zanu-PF central committee meeting on Thursday that it was disconcerting to note that former Cabinet ministers and other ruling party bigwigs who were given full time jobs at the party headquarters were not wearing Zanu-PF regalia as the party's brand ambassadors.

To stress his point, he requested former Cabinet ministers Simon Khaya Moyo; Patrick Chinamasa; Obert Mpofu; Chris Mushowe; Edna Madzongwe; Paul Mangwana; Simbarashe Mumbengegwi; Mike Bimha; David Parirenyatwa; and Josiah Hungwe, together with other Zanu-PF bigwigs that include Douglas Mahiya, Lewis Matutu and Cleveria Chizema to stand up so that other central committee members could see for themselves what he was talking about.

"Do you see them? They are employed full time by the party (but) only two are wearing party regalia, the rest are not, yet they are leaders of the party)? Next time you must come wearing party regalia," he said.

Zanu-PF regalia, more often than not, displays the face of the incumbent first secretary of the party who is Mnangagwa.

When he first ascended to power after taking over from deposed leader Robert Mugabe in November last year, Mnangagwa insisted that he did not believe in party symbols after realising that his supporters were taking apple-polishing to dizzy heights.

He even restrained party supporters from singing songs that idolise him.

"The praise song I desire, if you were to sing one, is that of our National Anthem and those from the liberation struggle, not for me, no," Mnangagwa said then.
Months on, that refreshing new order seems to be turning into a mirage.

Mnangagwa's veneration is being amplified through Jah Prayzah's hit songs — Mudhara Achauya and Kutonga Kwaro — which upon their release stoked political controversy but have become almost national anthems at Zanu-PF functions.

As if to endorse the adulation, Mnangagwa dances to the tunes at every party event and sometimes at government functions.

Another hit song, ED-PFee, has also joined the fray while party regalia emblazoned with Mnangagwa's name have since been acquired including caps with the ED-PFee label.

While war veterans who were Mnangagwa's foot-soldiers in the battle to succeed Mugabe regretted the fact that they had made a cult of Mugabe, the same is being perpetuated in the new president's name. Former Psychomotor minister Josiah Hungwe set the trend when he described Mnangagwa as "a son of man" well before he became president.

Mpofu, who as former Home Affairs minister famously used to sign off his communications with Mugabe by saying "your most obedient son", has previous likened Mnangagwa to the biblical Joshua who is "as soft, as tender as an African mother's love" notwithstanding his nickname — Ngwena.

Zanu-PF Harare provincial chairperson Goodwills Masimirembwa has also taken his bootlicking to another level when he gave welcome remarks to the party's extraordinary congress in December last year.

"You led the tripartite of the army along with General Constantino Guvheya Nyikadzino Chiwenga and Zanu-PF. Shumba Murambwi (Mnangagwa's totem), Shumba ye Chirumhanzu, tinoda kuti mutonge imi, murambe muchingotonga, muchingotonga, muchingotonga (We want you to rule for ever and ever)," Masimirembwa fawned.