President Robert Mugabe says the infighting in Zanu PF party is largely as a personal differences and tribalism.
Speaking at the Mashonaland Central youth interface rally in Bindura on Saturday, President Mugabe also said he will not name a successor as doing so was against the party constitution adding only congress had the powers to do so.
He mentioned the perceived differences between Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa and Higher and Tertiary Education Minister Jonathan Moyo as personal which emanated from the Tsholotsho debacle in 2004.
President Mugabe said Moyo was not happy that the Vice President had “dumbed him” despite having supported him to take over as Vice President then.
“I really don’t know where Cde Mnangagwa and Cde Moyo missed each other. They plotted Tsholotsho together. They were together with this Gushungo (Philip Chiyangwa) who is now into football administration. They met at his house in Zvimba as provincial chairpersons and plotted. They were behind Mnangagwa,” he said.
“Mnangagwa wasn’t there but Jonathan and Chiyangwa were there. They agreed to go to Tsholotsho to finish off what they had started. He (Mnangagwa) didn’t go, he told me he was tied up somewhere. We got hold of that and many including Moyo were suspended. His concern is that the Vice President did not come out to stand for him. The person they were fighting for survived. He is a lawyer so he leaves no trace. He said he did not harbour ambitions and was not part of that plot.
“He said it in the Politburo that he will not support Mnangagwa because of what he did.”
On the origins of a group of young Turks in the party going by the moniker G40, President Mugabe revealed that this came after national political commissar Saviour Kasukuwere was inspired by former United States President Barack Obama’s victory and age.
“That is how G40 started. Obama had just won and he was in his 40s. That is where Kasukuwere got the name Obama and they were boasting about that.”
On him naming a successor, President Mugabe said he will not do that as it was unconstitutional.
“Naming a successor is unconstitutional, I will not do that. I may have a candidate but it’s against the constitution, I follow the law. I will not leave my wife, no I won’t do that. We don’t do that in Zanu PF.” zifmnews.com
