Mugabe plays G40 against Lacoste again

On September 7, 2016, President Robert Mugabe had Local Government minister Saviour Kasukuwere hanging by the skin of his teeth after he confronted him on allegations of selling land meant for Zanu-PF youths' residential stands to PHD ministries founder Walter Magaya.

The development left Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa's allies who view Kasukuwere as the face of the Generation 40 (G40) faction working feverishly to block the Midlands godfather's presidential ambitions on cloud nine.

The faction felt that at long last, it had prevailed over the G40 and that perhaps Mugabe had now "seen the light" and would be more amenable to hand over power to its candidate.

But in typical fashion Mugabe all but deflated all that hope when he appeared to sing praises for the G40 members at the Harare International Airport upon his arrival after attending this year's United Nations General Assembly meeting in the United States of America.

While he acknowledged the presence of his two deputies Mnangagwa and Phelekezela Mphoko as he addressed Zanu-PF supporters, Mugabe chanted an unusual slogan that appeared to be exalting Kasukuwere and other G40 members.

"Pamberi nemaministers edu, napolitical commissar vedu ava vaKasukuwere, newomen's league yakatungamirirwa naamai vedu First Lady (Grace Mugabe), neyouth league yakatungamirirwa nava (Kudzanai) Chipanga…pasi neMDC nezvimwewo zvakazovambwa zvitototo, pasi nazvo," Mugabe said as he waved a rose.

Mugabe went on to praise the Zanu-PF Harare provincial executive as well as war veterans and liberation war collaborators for a sterling job they were doing in organising the party.

The nonagenarian also praised metropolitan Harare Provincial minister Miriam Chikukwa who is an ally of his wife Grace.

He also apologised to his supporters for arriving late explaining that his departure from New York had been delayed owing to congestion of the airspace.

"Pamberi minister Chikukwa, namai Chikukwa, pamberi neHarare, Harare, Harare. I am really sorry that we kept you waiting and arrived this late as there were problems with our travel arrangements with the airspace congested so we could not take off on time. However, I know that even if we had arrived much later than this you would still have waited for me to address you even in the dark," he said.

In the recent past, Mugabe also surprised many when he appointed Mnangagwa and secretary for legal affairs, Patrick Chinamasa to draft the appeals' procedure to facilitate reviewing cases of members suspended and expelled by the G40 faction.

Most of the aggrieved party members belonged to Mnangagwa's Team Lacoste faction who were booted out of the party on allegations of fanning factionalism.

The suspended members had claimed that they were unlikely to get a fair hearing from an appeals panel led by Mphoko, an alleged G40 functionary.

This, observers say, has been Mugabe's modus operandi when dealing with competing interests in the ruling party.

And to his credit, the method has been successful in maintaining his octopus-like grip on power since independence from Britain in 1980.