Mugabe to expose 'false gods'

PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe's much awaited statement which he will make at the Zanu-PF 6th Congress will have far reaching effects as it will deal with succession and expose false bidders for his position, the presidential spokesperson has said.

George Charamba, the President's spokesperson, who is also the permanent secretary in the Ministry of Information, Media and Broadcasting Services told the Financial Gazette that the President's speech will be far reaching; show people the critical dynamics behind the issue of succession; as well as expose "false gods".

The statement, Charamba said, will "distort events, prospects and personalities," as people have known them.

"While I cannot pre-empt the President, I can tell you that he will make a far reaching statement and educate people on history - those aspects which create understanding around the issue of succession," Charamba said.

According to Charamba events that have unfolded in the past months have exposed that people did not understand a number of dynamics that would have a bearing on how the politics of the country would proceed. "What has been happening over the past months has shown that people have not been appreciating some lessons in history and this had led them to worship false gods," Charamba said, adding, "It has shown that people have a poor grasp of their own history. The issue of succession is futuristic and it is informed by the past, which is consolidated by the present. So the President in making his far reaching statement, will take the opportunity to educate people of their own history."

The lack of appreciation of what really happened in history, Charamba said, had resulted in people naming their own successors; calling some people righteous and others villains, "without knowing an iota about the history that informs such things. For months, a presumptuous media has been recommending false gods to people," Charamba said indicating that this would be put to sleep after the President's speech today.

Following a frenzied two months of ousters of party hawks in the party leadership, which has seen a barrage of votes on no confidence being cast on tens of supposed supporters of Vice President Joice Mujuru, who stands accused of plotting to oust the President, the Zanu-PF's sixth People's congress is expected to be the climax of unbridled tension and venom which has gushed out of the belly of the revolutionary movement like larva from a volcano.

The Mujuru faction which has been pitted against the Justice Minister, Emmerson Mnangagwa's camp in recent years in a ferocious fight to succeed President Mugabe when he does exit the apex of the ruling party and government for whatever reason, is accused of vote buying and plotting a ‘palace coup'.  As such, Mujuru has been castigated left, right and centre for creating an alternative centre of power. This has necessitated a systematic purge that has seen her allies in the various branches of party leadership across the country being abruptly shed off like leaves from a tree in autumn.

Calls for Mujuru to resign, which were first made by the First Lady Grace Mugabe upon her entry into mainstream politics following her endorsement by various party organs, groups, associations and constituencies to be the Zanu-PF Women's League boss, when Oppah Muchinguri steps down after the party's congress; have become deafening.

Party youths, war veterans, Women's League and others in the party have, in shrill voices, at times expressed through demonstrations, echoed the First Lady's calls for Mujuru to resign. So intense has been the campaign against Mujuru that for weeks on end the State media has carried day in day out articles attacking the integrity of Mujuru as a member of the presidium. Published stories have shown her; her family members; and associates embroiled in all manner of murky dealings, among a potpourri of other underhanded transactions.

The build up through the Central Committee elections, a battery of heated Politburo meetings as many bigwigs have been toppled off their leadership positions, has set congress which officially opens today through to December 7, as the grand stage where the denouement act which will seal Mujuru's fate in the party at the hands of President Mugabe, who through a newly amended constitution can now unilaterally pick and choose the party's presidium, which also becomes the country's leadership.

As he inspected the congress venue, President Mugabe ominously intimated that he would make "huge" announcements at the event. As such anticipation has been wild and raging among the general populace as to what those announcements could be. The announcements will be unravelled as the veteran leader, who has led the revolutionary movement since independence in 1980, officially opens the ruling party's congress.

"The President's statement will give an indication of a durable system that can guide the country into the future," Charamba said. Meanwhile, it is hoped that in addition to dealing with their internecine party squabbles the ruling party would deliberate on and proffer solutions to the country's economic quagmire.

The majority of people in the country have sunk into untold poverty as companies have closed and unemployment has skyrocketed above 90 percent. Since 2011, thousands of companies have closed, leaving the livelihoods of thousands of families obliterated. Since romping into power in July 2013, Zanu-PF is yet to chart a way forward for the nation. A measly US$4,1 billion national budget was presented last week by the Minister of Finance, Patrick Chinamasa showing neither sign nor effort in funding drivers of economic growth. More than 80 percent of the nation's expenditure has been earmarked for the country's wage bill revealing a disturbing and unrelenting consumptive pattern of expenditure.