Mohadi successor, phone tapping, 2 VPs dominate talk in Matebeleland

THE resignation of Vice President Kembo Mohadi has triggered frenzied talk in Matebeleland with political activists and parties expressing different views about who and how the former VP could best be replaced.

Others choose to focus on the porous nature of private communication among individuals in the country as the ex-VP's sex scandals emerged from alleged phone tapping by Mohadi's enemies.

Some want to concentrate on whether it was still necessary for a small country like Zimbabwe to still have two vice presidents.

A former PF Zapu politician, Mohadi resigned from his position on Monday when embarrassing audios of the ex-VP inviting married women for sex in his government office and hotels went viral on social media.

He was co-VP who represented the PF Zapu equation of the 1987 unity accord credited for bringing a stop to bloody hostilities between the liberation movement and Zanu back then.

Part of the accord says one of the two VPs and the united party's national chair shall emerge from some former senior Zapu leaders.

Activist Mbuso Fuzwayo said if the Unity Accord was to be followed in its letter and spirit, Angeline Masuku would replace Mohadi as she was the most senior surviving member from PF Zapu.

Masuku, a former governor for Matabeleland South province, is currently a member of the Zanu-PF politburo as well as the vice chairperson of the Women's League.

Said Fuzwayo, "The question is the Unity Accord still respected? They (Zapu) lost this traditional position when the current chairperson Oppah Muchinguri-Kashiri, who is from Zanu was given the post ahead of former Zapu cadres.

"Anyway, if President Emmerson Mnangagwa decides to revert back to the Unity Accord, I think umama Masuku is more senior but in terms of health and age, her chances are slim and this paves way for people like Simon Khaya Moyo, Tshinga Dube and former ZIPRA Chief of Intelligence Retired Brigadier General Abel Mazinyane," said Fuzwayo.

Other senior Zanu-PF Matabeleland based top politicians who have also been tipped to replace Mohadi are Obert Mpofu, Sithembiso Nyoni and Zimbabwe Defence Forces Commander Philip Valerio Sibanda.

Zapu acting president, Isaac Mabuka concurred with Fuzwayo that Masuku was the most senior former PF Zapu politician currently within Zanu-PF.

"I think umama Masuku is the most senior, but I do not want to comment on the issue of Vice President Mohadi's replacement," he said.

However, Zapu spokesperson Iphithule Maphosa said the unity accord long collapsed in 2009 after a group of former PF Zapu leaders elected to pull out of the arrangement citing unequal treatment.

"it is those who are in denial who still believe certain positions are reserved for former Zapu membership.

"Zapu lives today and there is nothing called former member or senior official outside the party structures as led by President Isaac Mabuka.

"Instead of being naively stuck in a non-existing world of a unity accord, we must be talking and proffering solutions to the uselessness of the vice president who just resigned as well as questioning the necessity of two vice presidents in a country with a population of less than 20 million people," said Maphosa.

MDC Alliance Bulawayo provincial spokesperson Swithern Chiroodza said he was more concerned about the abuse of the state apparatus to snoop on selected government officials.

"If media reports suggesting that former Vice President, Kembo Mohadi was scandalised by the CIO is anything to go by, we urge government to henceforth make it possible for its workers, particularly those deployed to VIP security, to be able to lodge grievances against their superiors without fear or resultant injury of any kind.

"Such a scenario will deny those who abuse state apparatus a pretext to employ honey traps, telephonic eavesdropping and other state-sponsored plots against high-ranking government officials," said Chiroodza.