Celebrate not with abandon yet President Emmerson Mnangagwa
Cde Mnangagwa

Cde Mnangagwa

Perspective Stephen Mpofu
NO doubt the generality of Zimbabweans who fervently support the government are upbeat about the future of the ruling party and of the country under Zanu-PF’s stewardship following purges that saw provincial chairpersons as well as cabinet ministers and former Vice President Joice Mujuru fall by the wayside, accused of failing to fulfill roles assigned them and instead indulging in factionalism and a plot to remove President Mugabe from power by assassinating him.

The big heads may have rolled all right but except for sacked party spokesperson Cde Rugare Gumbo, the rest of the disgraced leaders remain slenderly but effectively and yet lethally attached to the governing party by their as yet unthreatened membership to it, which gives them leeway to go the whole hog avenging their dismissals by taking actions intended to disable the work of the new cabinet and with that the President’s ability to steer the ship of State along the Zim-Asset path intended to rejuvenate unimpeded social and economic development to usher the country into a brave new world.

Because the leaders shoved in the shade really have nothing left to lose politically, it is anyone’s guess that after recovering from the initial shock and humiliation of being cast away into virtual political obscurity, at least for the time being, they, or the most aggrieved and bitterest among them, will want to spoil the party for the new team in government through what they might deem as appropriate vengeance.

In the circumstances, therefore, Zimbabweans might be all the wiser to not celebrate with abandon the clean up in the revolutionary party and its government but do so with measured circumspection just in case.

An attempt on Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Cde Emmerson Mnangagwa’s life on the eve of his elevation to Vice President along with Ambassador Phelekezela Mphoko just goes to demonstrate that a premeditated instinct to remove by death rivals out of the way to higher political office is the stuff of which some of those people accused of wanting to shoot the President are made of and will fulfill that second nature given any slim chance to do so.

The person or persons who strolled into the Zanu-PF headquarters, burgled Cde Mnangagwa’s office there and sprayed it with cyanide and then ambled away unscathed, can only be people familiar with the location of the office and with an abysmal lack of security there and only political colleagues will be familiar with the state of affairs at a ruling party’s headquarters so strategic in the life of this nation and yet so apparently vulnerable to criminal elements, for the shocking state of insecurity exposed by those who attacked Cde Mnangagwa’s office, leaving workers who entered the office first hospitalised after inhaling the deadly acid.

Why, if this pen might ask, was there no security guard posted to that bulding or was she/he there but asleep or taken a break away from guard duty?

In this pen’s humble mind, the break-in at the party headquarters strengthens a need, a very urgent need for that matter, for the tightening up of security at all strategic ruling party and government offices to thwart any moves by disaffected political elements to gain access to those places for whatever evil intentions by which they might be driven.

In fact, such guards should be armed people trained in the use of fire arms to prevent any needless loss of life through rash and inexperienced reaction to situations.

In this pen’s humble opinion, the attack on Cde Mnangagwa’s office posits a strong possibility that expert assassins who might be foreign sympathisers or helpers of some of those people fingered in the attempt to eliminate Cde Mugabe may have connived with the callous elements after Cde Mnangagwa’s life, witness the use of cyanide as a sophisticated killer weapon that only Zimbabwean poachers or their helpers are known to have used in killing elephants at the Hwange National Park.

Because like Cde Mnangagwa, Ambassador Mphoko is now also seen as a strong support pillar for President Mugabe’s rulership, there is no doubt his head is already, or might be circled in red as a target for elimination to try to weaken Cde Mugabe’s presidency and with that Zimbabweans’ march forward in defiance of illegal economic sanctions imposed on the country by the West in protest to land reform, even though the embargo is now like a pot-holed road as some European countries are slowly but surely making peace with Zimbabwe to benefit from this country’s rich mineral resources that those countries lack.

But why would anyone, other than those hungry for the President’s liver want to put Cde Mnangagwa out of existence?

It is logical for this pen to surmise that only those people vying to succeed President Mugabe see Cde Mnangagwa as their strong, potential rival in the quest for the top post in the land whenever it becomes due, after Cde Mugabe leaves office. Their perception of the calibre of their perceived rival, Cde Mnangagwa, as a potential Head of State may not really be quite off the mark, and anyone else entering memory lane to the early years of this country’s independence will understand why.

For the benefit of born-free’s and other people who might not have domiciled in Rhodesia when it became Zimbabwe in 1980, Cde Mnangagwa worked in very close proximity with Cde Mugabe as Prime Minister then, as he will do now after being sworn in yesterday along with Cde Mphoko as Vice Presidents along with the new Cabinet.

He will no doubt go down in the correct annals of history as the man who, along with other patriots in the state security and intelligence network, saved not only the life of the Prime Minister but also of the fledging state of Zimbabwe just before the Union Jack bowed down and out of Zimbabwe and was replaced by our own proud flag on the night of April 18, 1980.

Cde Mnangagwa was Minister of State in the Prime Ministers Office. On the night before Independence Day and during a routine security inspection of Rufaro Stadium where the Prime Minister was to be inaugurated during the hand over of power from colonial Britain, the security people stumbled on a coup attempt, a thing that might have reversed the onset of independence for many years.

The plot involved offensive weapons and highly explosive material brought into the country by reactionary forces to assassinate the new Prime Minister as he drove into the stadium along with his entourage.

The murder weapons included four Claymore mines charged with 20kg plastic explosives, 20kg of chopped steel bars and four electrical and five mechanical Limpet mines magnetised that would have attached themselves to the Prime Minister’s vehicle and others in his motorcade as they drove through.

If left undetected, the bombs would also have killed Prince Charles, son of Queen Elizabeth of England, who was Chief Guest to hand over power to Prime Minister Mugabe on behalf of the British Crown.

Other casualties would have included Bob Marley, who provided entertainment, and this journalist in Harare to cover the celebrations for The Times newspaper in Zambia as well as international and local scribes and foreign dignitaries also in attendance in the packed stadium would have died.

(See Creatures at the Top, a book by this pen.)

Also, a thesis of the above discourse is that those people implicated in the assassination plot against the President should be booted out of the ruling party altogether and their movements strictly monitored until such a time as are deemed a non-threat to Zanu-PF and its government.

After their sacking from the government, former Vice-President Mujuru was reported by the Voice of America (VOA) radio as saying she would not relinquish her membership of Zanu-PF as the organisation was the only one that she had known all her life.

There is no doubt that while some party faithfuls might shun her for what she is alleged to have done, parallel structures set up by provincial chairmen, since dismissed, are likely to continue to embrace her even though the political future for her might look opaque.

Consider this also. VOA broadcast a story from its Zimbabwean correspondent in Harare to the effect that as Zanu-PF’s 6th National People’s Congress was taking place, a vehicle went round the capital distributing flyers calling on delegates at the congress to pass a vote of no confidence on Cde Mugabe.

There is no doubt this was the work of disgruntled members who had fallen out with the party and who might do worse things in future if left on the loose undercover of membership of the revolutionary party.

What all this suggests is that party and government leaders as well as the rank and file should remain alert to foil any dirty acts detrimental to peace and security so that Zimbabwe marches on invincibly against both local and external detractors.

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