Lack of opposition spurs Zanu-PF infighting

THE Zanu-PF infighting has reached boiling point with analysts saying if it continues unchecked, it might degenerate into physical confrontation or worse.

Fist fights have already been witnessed in the party while the recently-held youth and women conferences became a cocktail of vicious attacks along factional lines.

All people now wait for is the final matchstick to set the revolutionary party on fire.

There are deep-rooted factional fights between a camp reportedly led by Vice-President Joice Mujuru and another one linked to Justice minister Emmerson Mnangagwa. The two are touted as the leading contenders in the race to succeed 90-year-old President Robert Mugabe.

The two have however persistently denied leading factions or harbouring presidential ambitions.

But in his own admission, Mugabe said there wer
e people who were working against the party by forwarding their own personal agendas in their fight for power. "The clandestine meetings taking place, the activities going on in the party just now are filthy, dirty.

You are destroying the party and some people pretend, they think we don't know what is happening," Mugabe said recently.

Foreign Affairs deputy minister Chris Mutsvangwa could not have highlighted the seriousness of the Zanu-PF fight any better when he attacked Presidential Affairs minister and secretary for administration Didymus Mutasa saying he was a "pretender".

"These are putschist crank pots with no appreciation of statecraft. The only political card they are hanging on to is their coalescence around a pretender called Didymus Mutasa.  Under the guise of banal revolutionary slogans and the trumpeting of Nicodemus allegiance to His Excellency President Mugabe, he toys with an ignorant aspiration to rule Zimbabwe," Mutsvangwa ranted.

"Totally oblivious of his incapacity, Mutasa has been busy creating all sorts of office posts in the party and government and according himself political titles like political guru of Manicaland Province. With no rule book he discards the party constitution and makes arbitrary decisions in the name of the President of the Republic then looks up to an un-elected Vice President Mujuru for defence and succour."

This, linked with what has been happening in provinces, sums up the thinking that Zanu-PF was nearing its end. But other analysts argue Zanu-PF has survived many wars to succumb to these internal fights.

Pedzisai Ruhanya, a political analyst, said Zanu-PF would not collapse and attributed the serious infighting to the absence of a strong opposition party. "Zanu-PF is a political party that is used to political conflict, political differences and political shenanigans but when faced with a common enemy, especially a united external enemy, it fights. People shouldn't be fooled to suggest it is finished. It has survived several cases because they fight when faced with a co-ordinated opposition," Ruhanya said.

"What is happening is a reflection of disorganisation and purposeless political opposition, so they can afford to do this. Zanu-PF has become an opposition to itself because there is no opposition from outside. If there was a united opposition, Zanu-PF would stop all this."

Takura Zhangazha, another political analyst said Zanu-PF was affording "the luxury" of their internal fights because of the unavailability of a powerful opposition party.

Alexander Rusero said Zanu-PF behaved like baboons that fight on their own but unite when faced with a powerful opposition. "It needs an opposition to survive and they are fighting because they do not have an opposition. It's not imploding but what we are witnessing is the course of the demise of the party. They are struggles within the struggle but as a liberation movement, they have more to fight for since they are in control of the political economy of the country," said Rusero.

"Zanu-PF works best when in a corner and they need opposition to unite, they behave like baboons. They can fight to an extent of taking food from the other's mouth but when they have a common enemy, they forget about their differences and work together."
Zanu-PF has been embroiled in serious mudslinging encounters, name-calling, sloganeering targeted at attacking each other with serious divisions shown in the just-ended women and youth league conferences in Harare.

The MDC led by Morgan Tsvangirai is having its fair share of problems, hence its failure to provide serious opposition to Zanu-PF.

Party leaders have been openly fighting along factional lines in a bid to position themselves strategically ahead of the Zanu-PF elective congress in December.

Mugabe has made it clear that all the leaders will have to resign and pave way for new leadership at congress, a position viewed by observers as meant to throw Mujuru out of the challenge.

Events in the party in the past few weeks indicate a party in crisis and ready to implode. Observers said the MDC formations were failing to map out a strategy to pressure the ruling party to address the economic challenges affecting the country.

The entrance by First Lady Grace Mugabe into the political arena has also not helped matters as she has started fighting others perceived to be a threat to her interests, including Mazowe MP Fortune Chasi. As the drama unfolds, it remains to be seen whether Zanu-PF will survive the storm in the absence of a serious opposition.