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PRESIDENT–ELECT Emmerson Mnangagwa on Thursday addressed Zanu-PF candidates who won seats in the harmonised elections held on July 30 and implored them and their supporters to celebrate in style for thrashing their rivals with a comfortable two thirds majority in Parliament.

The revolutionary party amassed 145 seats out of the 210 contested constituencies while Cde Mnangagwa garnered 50,8 percent in the presidential race to beat his main rival Mr Nelson Chamisa of the MDC Alliance who got 44,3 percent. The President-elect prevailed despite spirited efforts by some candidates to do a “Bhora musango” where they urged the electorate to vote for the National Assembly members only and not the President.

This resulted in Cde Mnangagwa losing to Mr Chamisa in some constituencies while Zanu-PF candidates won with convincing margins. The “Bhora musango” campaign was allegedly engineered by disgruntled party functionaries, particularly those linked to the G-40 cabal and its offshoot — the National Patriotic Front. In May, Cde Mnangagwa revealed that he was aware of a plot by the G-40 cabal to impeach him in Parliament once he was elected President in last month’s harmonised elections.

Addressing winning and losing Zanu-PF primary election candidates in Harare, the Zanu-PF First Secretary said the party had democratised its primary elections, a move that saw many people contesting. As a result, President Mnangagwa said, some of those who won reportedly had sinister motives, which he said would come to naught.

“I get intelligence that some of those who have won those primary elections have two minds,” he said. “They have joined the Zanu-PF wagon using various tricks, money included to be elected with a possible view that once elected in Parliament they will come together and move a motion of impeachment.

There are two things I would want those among you to know would happen. First, you must realise that the Constitution provides the basis of impeachment and such basis must be fulfilled before impeachment proceedings begin.

“Secondly, our Constitution provides an instrument to chuck out from Parliament any member whom we think is not Zanu-PF anymore. Saka iwe nemoyo wako, nengirozi yako, nemudzimu wako ziva paumire.” On Thursday, Cde Mnangagwa said measures would be taken against those who engineered “Bhora Musango”.

He commended Bulawayo province for performing well both in the Presidential and House of Assembly polls. “I have been given a report showing statistics of the number of votes attained by the MP and the President in every constituency. I want to talk in general terms,” he said.

“There were others who were saying vote for the MP but as for the President just do what you think is good for you. We now know these people. What it shows is that such Cdes do not rely with the leadership of party. So such people should be retired and if they want to come back they should come back as full members of the party. What we want is unity from the grassroots level up to national leadership speaking one message. That is why we have party ideology. We should all follow party ideology wherever we go.”

We commend Cde Mnangagwa for being forthright in his condemnation of party cadres who are behind the scheme to derail his presidential ambitions because the move was not only ill-advised but self-defeating since the presidency is much more important than a seat in Parliament.

The proponents of “Bhora musango” — who were obviously blindly following dictates of former President Robert Mugabe and his bellicose wife Grace — are on a mission to destroy the party from within and Zanu-PF cannot harbour people with such sinister motives.

Traitors are by their nature opportunistic, parasitic and a cancer which can cause immense damage if not contained timeously and we feel the party should embark on a journey of introspection and weed out the bad apples among its ranks. By encouraging openness, transparency and adherence to democratic tenets, Cde Mnangagwa appears to have unwittingly given succor to undesirable elements to find sanctuary in the party — an opportunity they have used to further the agenda of the G-40 cabal.

Had it not been for his immense popularity among the rank and file, the President-elect could have found himself on the losing side thanks to “Bhora musango”. Against all odds, Cde Mnangagwa triumphed, polling more than 2,4 million votes to surpass the highest total former President Mugabe ever amassed, which is 2,1 million in the 2013 elections.

We applaud the valiant efforts of the Zanu-PF supporters who defied the “Bhora musango” campaign and urge them to remain loyal to the party of independence and its leader, Cde Mnangagwa. Good times lie ahead for Zimbabwe under the stewardship of Zanu-PF with its people-centred policies likely to steer the country to prosperity.

The President-elect laid the groundwork for the economy’s take off in the eight months he was in charge since the events of November 2017. The fresh five-year mandate he has been given is enough to get the economy working again.