Battle lines drawn in Manicaland

CONTRARY to reports in some sections of the media, the Zanu-PF Manicaland provincial executive was still in office as the fact-finding mission dispatched to investigate problems there had no mandate to fire anyone. Zanu-PF national chairman Cde Simon

Khaya Moyo leads the team which comprises national political commissar Cde Webster Shamu and deputy secretary for security Cde Kembo Mohadi.
Secretary for administration Cde Didymus Mutasa — who is being accused of fuelling problems in the province — was also roped in, a development observers feared could detract findings as it emerged that cracks ravaging the province pitted groups aligned to him and Women’s League boss Cde Oppah Muchinguri.

“I do not have the powers to fire anyone. As a committee, we were just sent to Mutare listen to what the people were saying, compile a report that we will send to the President and Politburo for recommendations. That will be absolutely irresponsible for the committee to do that (firing the Mutare executive),” Cde Khaya Moyo said.
The team concluded its mission over the weekend and will forward the findings to the party’s supreme decision-making body, the Politburo.
Zanu-PF lost ground to MDC-T in the province in the last election, managing six seats out of a possible 26.

The probe team separately met Politburo and Central Committee members, war veterans and ex-detainees at Marymount Teachers College on Friday and Saturday in “a no-holds barred meeting”.

The meeting started at 10am on Friday and ended at 2am on Saturday.
The probe team has finished restructuring Bulawayo Province and after Mutare it will descend on Harare Province.
Cde Khaya Moyo said no province would be spared.

Als

“We met all the members, the Central Committee, Politburo, war veterans and we had extensive discussions.
“Our role was to listen and they spoke. We finished with a provincial co-ordinating committee meeting, involving all the members. We thanked them for the frank deliberations. It was a productive meeting. By the end it should benefit the people of Manicaland.

“We were assessing the preparedness of the party and no one should go to the media before we present the report.
“We are still compiling what the people said. The reports will be sent to the politburo and it shall come up with it recommendations,” he said.
While some officials reportedly openly expressed discomfort over the inclusion of Cde Mutasa in the investigation team, the meetings went ahead peacefully.
Information gathered by the Herald shows that a group of party officials reportedly aligned to Cde Mutasa are unhappy with a recent decision by some officials allegedly linked to Cde Muchinguri to petition the party leadership over challenges facing the party in the province.

They do not recognise the petition which they claim is fake and “was crafted by individuals scarred of losing their seats during primary elections”.
They alleged that they only read about the petition in the media and have never seen it hence those who wrote it “jumped the gun” as they did not conduct proper consultations.

A camp aligned to Cde Muchinguri reportedly wrote the petition in which they outlined to President Mugabe challenges facing the province.
The party subsequently sent a team to investigate the problems in Manicaland.

The petitioners were reportedly unhappy over an alleged attempt to impose candidates by Cde Mutasa ahead of Zanu-PF primary elections whose date is yet to be announced.
Allegations are that Cde Mutasa, the most senior official in the volatile province, wants to reinforce his clout by surrounding himself with “his people”.

A case in point is reportedly in one of the constituencies in Makoni where Cde Mutasa stands accused of backing aspiring candidate Cde Basil Nyabadza to push out Cde Patrick Chinamasa.

But individuals in Cde Mutasa’s alleged camp deny the charge saying it was coming from individuals who were scared of losing in the primaries and were hitting back at Cde Mutasa for failing to protect them.

“They want Cde Mutasa to protect them from aspiring candidates who have made serious inroads in their constituencies. Because Cde Mutasa is not willing to protect anyone, they now accuse him of siding with the aspiring candidates. They have seen that their chances of winning in the primary elections are slim and want to create unnecessary friction and to raise false alarm,” a source said.

Those said to be aligned to Cde Mutasa blame the state of affairs on the suspended provincial leadership of Cde Mike Madiro, whom they accuse of unprofessionally running the affairs of the party in the province.

“During the meeting, some party officials reportedly expressed their unhappiness over the suspension of Cde Madiro. They openly said it was wrong to institute legal charges against him and pleaded with the probe team to ensure that the case be solved amicably,” another source said.