News / National
G40 takes aim at Mnangagwa's head
22 Nov 2016 at 02:12hrs | Views
The Generation 40 (G40) group, which has been gasping for air in the face of the unrelenting mauling it is receiving at the hands of Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa's allies, is fighting back with interest — aiming its reloaded guns at the head of the Midlands godfather and aggressively re-introducing the divisive debate about the need for a woman to become one of Zanu-PF's two vice presidents.
Zanu-PF insiders who spoke to the Daily News last night said the G40's fightback plan was aimed at "pushing back" the marauding Team Lacoste (the Mnangagwa faction) and "exploiting" popular sentiment within the party's key women's league, which has until recently been loudly agitating for one of the party's VP posts to be given to women before the end of this year.
The call for a woman deputy and Zanu-PF's VPs to be elected when the ruling party meets in Masvingo next month is this time around being spearheaded by Mashonaland Central province, a stronghold of embattled national political commissar Saviour Kasukuwere, who is said to be one of the kingpins of the G40, which is rabidly opposed to Mnangagwa succeeding President Robert Mugabe.
"We are not following any factionalism. The people proposed that the two VPs must run for elections and get the mandate from the people," Mash Central party provincial chairperson Dickson Mafios, who is Kasukuwere's brother, said.
"The president was elected by the people and should be the one centre of power, not the VPs. They have no mandate from the people. It is a resolution that we are standing with and a resolution that we shall take forward at the conference, and we are not talking about one VP but both of them.
"If there is a faction that wants a certain VP, then it is free to vote for him. The fact that (former Vice President Joice) Mujuru was expelled from the party doesn't matter, we want a woman.
"The women are free to choose whoever they want. We are not campaigning for anyone. This is about implementing the policies of the party," he added.
Under the Zanu-PF constitution, such a proposal requires constitutional amendments and the party's central committee being notified before it is deliberated on and adopted. Such a process would also take about three weeks — just about enough between now and when Zanu-PF holds its annual conference in Masvingo.
But with Mashonaland Central seemingly being the only province thus far to have passed the hotly-debated resolution, in addition to rumblings within the province to the effect that the resolution was allegedly never debated by the region's membership, there are questions as to whether the resolution will carry.
"G40 is trying to ensure that the VP (Mnangagwa) is dropped. They believe that he does not have the national appeal. After all, Kasukuwere managed to purge all provincial leaders who were linked to the VP.
"There are also questions about where the resolutions came from. If the VPs are elected, then the whole politburo should be elected," a Mashonaland Central party official sympathetic to Mnangagwa said.
Speaking in Harare last Saturday, as Zanu-PF's tribal, factional and succession wars continue to escalate, former Harare chairman Godwills Masimirembwa appealed to Mugabe to make changes to the commissariat department, accusing Kasukuwere of destroying the party through suspect suspensions.
"Your Excellency, the traditional enemies of external forces have gone to sleep because internal threats have taken over to destroy Zanu-PF from within.
"It is these internal elements that say vaMugabe chete chete but they are working by night against you. These are the same internal threats that expel dedicated party cadres. They sit in their offices and expel party cadres who have done nothing.
"Mr President, they have become the complainants, prosecutors, judges and prison guards, and then they throw away the keys. Your Excellency, all cases that have gone before the commissariat should be revisited and given another trial," he told Mugabe during his meeting with war collaborators, detainees and restrictees.
Kasukuwere and fellow politburo member Jonathan Moyo, who is also seen as a kingpin of the G40, have been under the cosh from Team Lacoste in recent months, including facing accusations of abusing office and being involved in corrupt activities.
But the G40 appears to be regrouping, after Mugabe made yet another significant intervention at the weekend by refusing to give in to the demands of disgruntled war veterans that he ditches all the leading kingpins of the faction.
Kasukuwere and Moyo stand accused by the war veterans of allegedly sowing seeds of discord in the ruling party, imposing candidates, abusing social media to spill party secrets and to badmouth its bigwigs, and allegedly working to drown and sideline party officials linked to Mnangagwa.
"Let us all have one purpose. Let us not stray like what happened with our war veterans ... If you were given a warning, but you still beat your chest insisting that the party does what you want, is that how a war veteran behaves? Where did you learn that? You do not have the orientation of Zanu and Zapu … Politics leads the gun," Mugabe chided the vets.
Well-placed Zanu-PF sources said by taking this stance, the nonagenarian — the only leader Zimbabweans have known since the country gained independence from Britain in 1980 — had effectively given oxygen to the floundering G40.
Mugabe also made it clear during Saturday's meeting that he was not yet ready to leave office, adding ominously that if he were ever to retire he would do so "properly" — a warning that Zanu-PF insiders claimed in interviews with the Daily News was aimed at Team Lacoste.
"Change inouyaka zvakanaka. If I have to retire, let me retire properly. Vanhu vogarawo pasi zvakanaka, kwete zvekuenderana kun'anga zvanga zvichiita mai ava vakatisiya ava vachiita Zimbabwe (People) First. Aah, zvinenge zvisina kunaka (Succession must take place orderly. Zanu-PF members must sit down and agree on this, and not resort to voodoo like former Vice President . . . Mujuru allegedly did before she formed Zimbabwe People First)," the increasingly frail nonagenarian thundered.
Mugabe also said he was aware of the jostling for power by both the Team Lacoste and the G40 factions, going on to derisively refer to the former camp as the "Locust" group, and warning against "successionist" politics.
Zanu-PF insiders who spoke to the Daily News last night said the G40's fightback plan was aimed at "pushing back" the marauding Team Lacoste (the Mnangagwa faction) and "exploiting" popular sentiment within the party's key women's league, which has until recently been loudly agitating for one of the party's VP posts to be given to women before the end of this year.
The call for a woman deputy and Zanu-PF's VPs to be elected when the ruling party meets in Masvingo next month is this time around being spearheaded by Mashonaland Central province, a stronghold of embattled national political commissar Saviour Kasukuwere, who is said to be one of the kingpins of the G40, which is rabidly opposed to Mnangagwa succeeding President Robert Mugabe.
"We are not following any factionalism. The people proposed that the two VPs must run for elections and get the mandate from the people," Mash Central party provincial chairperson Dickson Mafios, who is Kasukuwere's brother, said.
"The president was elected by the people and should be the one centre of power, not the VPs. They have no mandate from the people. It is a resolution that we are standing with and a resolution that we shall take forward at the conference, and we are not talking about one VP but both of them.
"If there is a faction that wants a certain VP, then it is free to vote for him. The fact that (former Vice President Joice) Mujuru was expelled from the party doesn't matter, we want a woman.
"The women are free to choose whoever they want. We are not campaigning for anyone. This is about implementing the policies of the party," he added.
Under the Zanu-PF constitution, such a proposal requires constitutional amendments and the party's central committee being notified before it is deliberated on and adopted. Such a process would also take about three weeks — just about enough between now and when Zanu-PF holds its annual conference in Masvingo.
But with Mashonaland Central seemingly being the only province thus far to have passed the hotly-debated resolution, in addition to rumblings within the province to the effect that the resolution was allegedly never debated by the region's membership, there are questions as to whether the resolution will carry.
"G40 is trying to ensure that the VP (Mnangagwa) is dropped. They believe that he does not have the national appeal. After all, Kasukuwere managed to purge all provincial leaders who were linked to the VP.
"There are also questions about where the resolutions came from. If the VPs are elected, then the whole politburo should be elected," a Mashonaland Central party official sympathetic to Mnangagwa said.
Speaking in Harare last Saturday, as Zanu-PF's tribal, factional and succession wars continue to escalate, former Harare chairman Godwills Masimirembwa appealed to Mugabe to make changes to the commissariat department, accusing Kasukuwere of destroying the party through suspect suspensions.
"Your Excellency, the traditional enemies of external forces have gone to sleep because internal threats have taken over to destroy Zanu-PF from within.
"It is these internal elements that say vaMugabe chete chete but they are working by night against you. These are the same internal threats that expel dedicated party cadres. They sit in their offices and expel party cadres who have done nothing.
"Mr President, they have become the complainants, prosecutors, judges and prison guards, and then they throw away the keys. Your Excellency, all cases that have gone before the commissariat should be revisited and given another trial," he told Mugabe during his meeting with war collaborators, detainees and restrictees.
Kasukuwere and fellow politburo member Jonathan Moyo, who is also seen as a kingpin of the G40, have been under the cosh from Team Lacoste in recent months, including facing accusations of abusing office and being involved in corrupt activities.
But the G40 appears to be regrouping, after Mugabe made yet another significant intervention at the weekend by refusing to give in to the demands of disgruntled war veterans that he ditches all the leading kingpins of the faction.
Kasukuwere and Moyo stand accused by the war veterans of allegedly sowing seeds of discord in the ruling party, imposing candidates, abusing social media to spill party secrets and to badmouth its bigwigs, and allegedly working to drown and sideline party officials linked to Mnangagwa.
"Let us all have one purpose. Let us not stray like what happened with our war veterans ... If you were given a warning, but you still beat your chest insisting that the party does what you want, is that how a war veteran behaves? Where did you learn that? You do not have the orientation of Zanu and Zapu … Politics leads the gun," Mugabe chided the vets.
Well-placed Zanu-PF sources said by taking this stance, the nonagenarian — the only leader Zimbabweans have known since the country gained independence from Britain in 1980 — had effectively given oxygen to the floundering G40.
Mugabe also made it clear during Saturday's meeting that he was not yet ready to leave office, adding ominously that if he were ever to retire he would do so "properly" — a warning that Zanu-PF insiders claimed in interviews with the Daily News was aimed at Team Lacoste.
"Change inouyaka zvakanaka. If I have to retire, let me retire properly. Vanhu vogarawo pasi zvakanaka, kwete zvekuenderana kun'anga zvanga zvichiita mai ava vakatisiya ava vachiita Zimbabwe (People) First. Aah, zvinenge zvisina kunaka (Succession must take place orderly. Zanu-PF members must sit down and agree on this, and not resort to voodoo like former Vice President . . . Mujuru allegedly did before she formed Zimbabwe People First)," the increasingly frail nonagenarian thundered.
Mugabe also said he was aware of the jostling for power by both the Team Lacoste and the G40 factions, going on to derisively refer to the former camp as the "Locust" group, and warning against "successionist" politics.
Source - dailynews
