ASPIRING Zanu PF legislators in Harare are snubbing President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s campaign events ahead of the August 23 elections despite the ruling party’s presidential candidate investing heavily on them to woo voters, an internal document has revealed.
The latest revelations confirm Mnangagwa’s fears of a protest vote that have seen him leaning heavily on parallel structures to spearhead his campaign for a second and final term.
A shadowy group known as the Forever Associates of Zimbabwe (FAZ), which is believed to be an extenstion of the Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO), is running Mnangagwa’s campaign and organised the Zanu PF primary elections to choose candidates for next month’s election.
Zanu PF Harare province chairperson Goodwills Masimirembwa, in a circular dated July 13, 2023 directed to all aspiring MPs in the province expressed concern over the apparent snubbing of Mnangagwa by Harare legislators.
Masimirembwa said the candidates would now be forced to join the president’s activities through the marking of registers.
“I have noted with great concern that most of our National Assembly candidates, despite having party vehicles, do not attend party programmes particularly his Excellency's programmes and those of the vice president's (Constantino Chiwenga and Kembo Mohadi) and national chairman (Oppah Muchinguri),” he wrote.
“From tomorrow (June 14) National Assembly candidates will sign an attendance register with me.”
Sources in the ruling party on Friday said the candidates had never embraced Mnangagwa’s campaign.
“The snubbing of Mnangagwa's activities by aspiring MPs is a cause for concern in the party across the country,” said a source.
Another source said aspiring legislators were not snubbing the president, but were instead busy campaigning in their constituencies.
“This is the reason why we are not seeing them in some of these public events addressed by Mnangagwa,” the source said.
Political analyst Rejoice Ngwenya said Masimirembwa’s complaint was evidence that all was not well in the ruling party.
“There could be no other excuse for ignoring President Mnangagwa’s activities by Zanu PF MP’s. This shows that something is wrong in the party,” Ngwenya said.
Zanu PF spokesperson Christopher Mutsvangwa said Masimirembwa was reminding his legislators of proper priorities.
“MPs have demanding and pressing schedules. The chairman is assisting with proper priorities,” Mutsvangwa told The Standard.
Mnangagwa is one of the 11 presidential candidates.
Other candidates include his main challenger, Citizens Coalitions for Change leader Nelson Chamisa and exiled former minister, Saviour Kasukuwere.
Zanu PF bought each of its 210 parliamentary candidates top-of-the-range cars for their campaigns.