Ultimate Survivor: The nine lives of Wadyajena

JUST a few months ago, it looked almost certain that factional wars in Zanu PF had buried Justice Mayor Wadyajena.
 
Yet, Mayor's detractors, especially in his turbulent Midlands Province, forgot one thing: time and time again, throughout his switchback career in business and politics, he has been dismissed, written off and counted out, only to bounce back stronger, like some magical, flagitious rubber ball.
 
As a businessman, he suffered a serious blow when he and five others were falsely implicated in a manufactured fraud scandal at COTTCO which led to the seizure of his personal vehicles and his haulage trucks, grounding his operations.
 
In the ruling party, Zanu PF, he lost the primary election to long-term adversary, Flora Buka - threatening an end to his political career.
As if that was not enough, his nemeses wasted no time attempting to “finish him off”, orchestrating his suspension from the party and baying for an outright expulsion only to be saved by the President who  vowed that Wadyajena was never to be suspended.
 
It was a war on multiple fronts as he also faced serious criminal allegations that could have seen him doing time, a lot of time.
His business got grounded, too after the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (ZACC) obtained an order for the seizure of his oft seen high-end haulage trucks, along with his extremely high value personal cars. Done with in the eyes of his adversaries and largely understood at the time to be politically motivated, he had lived the last of his nine lives. But, before they had finished inscribing the epitaph, he was back and having the proverbial last laugh. Back in the party and perhaps bigger than ever before in business.
 
Being the litigious strategist he is, he took the legal route, fighting his way to the highest court in the land, the Supreme Court. A bench of the most esteemed judges concluded emphatically there had never been any evidence backing COTTCO and ZACC's outlandish claims of fraud and money laundering, proving the widely acknowledged suspicion that all legal actions against him and the COTTCO six had been political. Resultantly, ZACC was forced to admit its initial case was baseless and without merit at law. A resounding success for the firebrand former MP.
 
The Central Committee, ZANU PF's principal policy organ overturned Wadyajena's suspension which had been orchestrated by his rivals in the Midlands province, spearheaded by the vengeful Edson Chakanyuka Chiherenge, the Provincial Chairman widely thought to be a fence-post tortoise to another overly ambitious midlands ‘king-maker'. It's being reported that the same Chiherenge is facing ouster from the Midlands Province for failing to show support for the President.
 
The Central Committee actually went on to lift the suspensions of all the others there, bringing an end to a niggling political bloodbath that had left the Midlands crippled and reeling; Such is the extent of Wadyajena's influence. The decision followed widespread hearings which found the suspensions of Wadyajena and co. to be nothing but malicious overtures that needed no sanction by the organ.
 
According to the Central Committee report, ZANU PF national Chairperson Oppah Muchinguri-Kashiri presided over twenty-three disciplinary hearings covering eight provinces.
 
"The National Chairman presided over meetings of the National Disciplinary Committee (NDC) that made determination of 23 cases submitted to it under article 3_ section 513 to 535 of the ZANU PF constitution," the report reads.
 
In the Midlands province, more than 30 members were suspended under the chairmanship of Edson Chiherenge.
The appeals against suspensions were concluded and lifted en mass according to the report.
 
Wadyajena had been suspended together with Florence Rwodzi, and several other senior executives in the Midlands province for allegedly undermining the party's candidates in the 2023 general elections, a charge found by the NDC to be nothing but trumped up.
 
Now, he is back to his influential position as Chairman of the ZANU PF Gokwe North District Coordinating Committee (DCC). Also reinstated was Florence Rwodzi,the Secretary for Production and Labour in the Midlands Provincial Women's League.
 
Other suspensions were given to Peace Tavengwa, Godfrey Hofisi, and Catherine Mandenda.
 
The Central Committee report also indicate that the cases of Ignatius Chombo, Robert Nyemudzo, Paul Chimedza were concluded and recommended for readmission into the party while some suspensions were lifted.
 
On the business front, the High Court ordered a release of his trucks and all the other vehicles after he was cleared of any wrongdoing in the corruption case.
 
The uplifting of his suspension has left his enemies with an egg in the face, but what should not be lost on anyone is the fact that he has always had the blessing of President Emmerson Mnangagwa, who stood by him through every debacle.
 
Even when the Zanu PF factional wars were raging like a wild fire in 2014, a time when the charismatic young politician was targeted for the chop by a camp aligned to the then Vice President Joice Mujuru, he survived and did so with aplomb.
Then came the perilous occassion when he was targeted by the then political commissar, Saviour Kasukuwere between 2015 and 2017, which yielded the same result, against the odds.
 
One might conclude he has a special sauce or an undeniable political backing committed to his longer-term political career that sees him rebound successfully again and again. With the current catfights in ZANU PF, his readmission should be telling. The question begs, who is on whose side and who backs those that bayed for his blood against Mnangagwa's will?, What could be their own fate when the endgame is nigh.
 
One would say the recent history in Zanu PF is replete with telling examples which only the most dim participant can overlook, to their own peril.