Zimpapers Logo

Harare Bureau
ZANU-PF Manicaland Province has called for the expulsion of former national secretary for administration Cde Didymus Mutasa for his continued denigration of the revolutionary party and its First Secretary and President Cde Robert Mugabe.

The call comes amid reports attributed to Cde Mutasa in which he allegedly accused the Zanu-PF leadership of being undemocratic and his lobbying of Sadc to discredit the outcome of the 6th National People’s Congress held in Harare earlier this month.

Acting Zanu-PF chairman for Manicaland Cde Samuel Undenge yesterday said there were sentiments in the province that Cde Mutasa should be censured as his utterances did not reflect someone remorseful given the fact that he was being accused of fanning factionalism and plotting to assassinate President Mugabe.

“It is true that a lot of people want the province to act and we will soon meet as the provincial coordinating committee to deliberate on Cde Mutasa’s issue and several others affecting the province,” Cde Undenge said.

Minister of State for Manicaland Province Cde Mandi Chimene said there was consensus in the province that Cde Mutasa was now a renegade whose continued membership in Zanu-PF was causing disharmony in the party.

“Cde Mutasa has expelled himself and we just need as a province to formalise that expulsion. We are going to discuss that issue at our next provincial meeting because it is clear that Cde Mutasa is offside,” said Cde Chimene.

Cde Chimene said the directive from the Zanu-PF national political commissar Cde Saviour Kasukuwere for provinces to stop further suspensions of party executives was within his mandate especially in the absence of the First Secretary and President of the party.

“Cde Kasukuwere is right in what he said but as a province we will highlight our concerns to the party leadership. The leadership will then decide on the issue. We will wait for our leader and we will definitely present our sentiments to him when he comes,” Cde Chimene said. President Mugabe is currently on his annual leave in the Far East until January.

The Zanu-PF secretary for administration is said to have roped in MDC-T and a Western-funded international NGO to subvert the will of the people so that he could be restored to his former positions in the party and the government.

Cde Mutasa is said to have used his contacts in MDC-T to get the issue of his failure to land a Central Committee seat and dismissal from government tabled at a meeting of the Socialist International Council, which met at the United Nations Headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland from December 12 to 13.

The Socialist International Council meeting was convened to discuss high levels of insecurity and threats to world peace.

Zanu-PF is not a member of the Socialist International Council though the MPLA of Angola, Frelimo of Mozambique, Swapo of Namibia, ANC (South Africa), and Chama Cha Mapinduzi (Tanzania) are members along with the MDC, the Botswana Democratic Party and Patriotic Front of Zambia which are listed as consultative parties.

Cde Mutasa, who is in India where his wife is receiving treatment, is reported to have begun calling secretaries-general of sister liberation movements in southern Africa to make the same claims he had made to South African president Jacob Zuma, whom he lobbied, saying former VP Dr Joice Mujuru, several ministers and himself had been unjustly ejected from Zanu-PF and the government.

In an interview with the Independent of South Africa, Mutasa urged President Zuma to alert other regional governments about Zanu-PF’s Congress where he and Cde Mujuru, among other officials, were ejected.

He claimed that their sacking was unprocedural and undemocratic. Ironically, Cde Mujuru who lost not only her party and government positions but also her parliamentary seat, has since accepted her fate and congratulated the leadership elected at Congress.