ZANU PF’s wartime proverbial axe yesterday fell on First Lady Grace Mugabe and over a dozen of her cohorts in a faction of the ruling party known as G40 as the party’s central committee ushered in a post-President Robert Mugabe era.
BY RICHARD CHIDZA
In a continuation of the brutal factional purges that have characterised Zanu PF since 2014, former Vice-President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s Team Lacoste faction, riding on the military’s coattails, waved the guillotine on Grace “for promoting hate-speech, divisiveness and assuming roles and powers not delegated to her office”.
Vice-President Phelekezela Mphoko and nine Cabinet ministers, a deputy minister and three provincial affairs ministers were also expelled from Zanu PF.
Mphoko was also recommended for expulsion from the party “for divisiveness, being a member of the G40 cabal, protecting criminals and conduct that is inconsistent with the office of Vice-President and decorum”.
Other leading figures of the G40 faction expelled from the party were Saviour Kasukuwere (Local Government minister and party national commissar), Jonathan Moyo (Higher Education and party secretary for science and technology), Ignatius Chombo (Finance minister and party secretary for administration), Mandi Chimene (Manicaland provincial affairs minister), Anastansia Ndlovu (deputy Tourism minister), Kudzanai Chipanga (youth league politburo secretary), Walter Mzembi (Foreign Affairs minister), Paul Chimedza (Masvingo provincial Affairs minister), Tongai Kasukuwere (youth league), Shadreck Mashayamombe (Harare South MP), Eunice Sandi-Moyo (Bulawayo Provincial Affairs minister), Makhosini Hlongwane (Sports), Innocent Hamandishe (Youth), Letina (women’s league) and Samuel Undenge (Energy), (Hurungwe East MP) Sarah Mahoka, Xavier Kazizi (youth league), Patrick Zhuwao (Public Service minister) and Mpehlabayo Malinga, husband to Tabetha Kanengoni-Malinga – the Minister of State in Mphoko’s Office.
According to the resolutions of the central committee which met in Harare yesterday all suspensions of party members since the 2014 congress were nullified.
“All suspensions and expulsions after the 2014 congress on the basis on fictitious allegations created to protect criminals by the G40 cabal be and are hereby nullified,” the resolutions read.
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The women’s league also announced that they had recalled Grace from her position as women’s league secretary.
The Zanu PF youth league was not to be left out. It hit out at Grace in a statement following a meeting before the central committee.
“The likes of Chipanga, Hamandishe, Malinga, Tongai Kasukuwere and Kazizi and Ndlovu had become the voice and face of youth league looting. We take great exception to the vulgar language which had become party of Mrs Mugabe’s vocabulary and clearly showed that she lacked grooming and true motherhood,” the statement said. “The course of justice should take its path without fear or favour. All criminals particularly Zhuwao, Chombo, Kasukuwere, Jonathan Moyo, Letina Undenge, Chimene should pay dearly for causing untold suffering to Zimbabweans,” the youth league said.
The Zanu PF congress set for December 12 to 17 will go ahead despite the bedlam that has hit the ruling party. With a pronouncement to the effect that Mnangagwa will be Zanu PF’s presidential candidate in elections expected next year.
