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Faith Zaba
ZANU PF, reeling from a crippling internal power struggle triggered by President Robert Mugabe’s (picture) volatile succession issue, risks plunging into turmoil as factions fight over when the elections should be held and who should be the presidential candidate.
Insiders say the party’s renewed vicious infighting is intensifying as it becomes clear its elections plan has been thrown into disarray due to the on and off constitution-making process and negotiations over a roadmap towards the polls.
They also say Zanu PF, particularly those close to Mugabe from the state security service and party structures responsible for the party’s elections strategy, desperately want the polls this year when the president is still fit to be the candidate.
Mugabe is now advanced in age and is plagued by health problems.
Latest information shows Zanu PF’s internal strife is being fuelled by the realisation that elections would not be held this year but most likely in 2013. The constitution-making process and the crafting of the roadmap and implementation of critical elements of the Global Political Agreement to create conditions for free and fair polls would force elections to be held when they are constitutionally due in 2013.
Zanu PF spokesperson Rugare Gumbo confirmed yesterday party officials have been expressing divergent views on the timing of elections, albeit informally.
“People have expressed their different views but this is done in corridors and not raised formally at meetings. Our position at the moment is that we want elections this year and our candidate is President Mugabe,” he said.
Party insiders say the prospect of elections in 2013 is now compelling Zanu PF to change its strategy and tactics. Mugabe is only likely to be endorsed by the party as candidate if polls are held this year or next year. Once they are delayed to 2013 senior party officials agree it would not be practical or reasonable to field him as a candidate mainly, but not solely, due to old age and ill-health.
Zanu PF officials say if elections are held in 2013, which is most likely, and Mugabe is not the candidate, that would present a serious challenge because the party’s congress to elect new leaders is only due in 2014. That problem, they say, could only be resolved through an extraordinary congress which, if it comes immediately before elections, would be divisive and could easily lead to the fractured party’s defeat.
Informed officials say that is why Zanu PF politburo member Jonathan Moyo, who is involved in the elections strategy as an influential player with strong links to the state security structures and the party, recently insisted that either the polls should come this year or in 2016.
“It is now clear in the national interest the next harmonised general election must be held this year in 2011, failure of which it should be held in 2016 and not any other time in between,” Moyo wrote in a revealing article in the state-controlled Sunday Mail on May 15.
Sources say after realising his colleagues were slow on the uptake on the issue, Moyo this week took an unprecedented move to write again in the Sunday Mail on August 7 a piece bemoaning Zanu PF’s failure to embrace reform and change. Moyo lamented the party’s failure to have leadership renewal and embrace change, refusal to accept mistakes, correct them and avoid repeating them in future in similar circumstances, failure to acknowledge and deal with corruption and its culture of violence which it blames on others.
“Why is it that some comrades in the nationalist movement in general, and in Zanu PF in particular, seem to be afraid of change when it is a fact of everyday life and is thus essential to the survival of any living thing whether biological, social, economic or political?” Moyo wrote this week.
“Why is it that some comrades in the nationalist movement do not seem to understand that the whole debate about when elections should be held has absolutely nothing to do with the alleged implementation of the GPA or the need to fulfill the so-called SADC election roadmap, but is all about confusing everything to ensure that the next elections are held when it is practically impossible for President Robert Mugabe — whom the UK, US and EU governments and their local puppets see as an unbeatable electoral opponent in the post-GPA era — to be candidate?
A top Zanu PF official said yesterday: “We are pushing for elections this year and we want them this year or early next year when President Mugabe is still able to campaign and ensure victory for the party. I don’t see Mugabe contesting elections if they are held in 2013 – he will not contest because of old age.
“I agree with Professor Moyo to a certain extent that we need to start thinking about a new leader but it will not be easy to start debate on the issue.”
Moyo acknowledged in his article that there was debate that Mugabe would not be able to run in 2013, although he attributed this on “enemies of Zimbabwe”.
“The thinking behind this strategy is that at that time it will not be practical or reasonable for President Mugabe to be a presidential candidate given the allegations that are being made about his age and alleged poor health,” Moyo says.
However, information at hand shows these issues are not coming from “enemies of Zimbabwe” but within Zanu PF itself.
Moyo insinuates in his article that “Generation 40” – which implies young turks in the party he is working with grouped around politburo member Saviour Kasukuwere – should to take charge.
However, Moyo’s statements have angered the party’s old guard. A senior politburo member said: “We are going to consult and see how we are going to deal with the matter at the next politburo meeting. Moyo’s outbursts are an attack on senior party officials in the media and we don’t tolerate that in Zanu PF.”
Gumbo said yesterday the issues Moyo raises in his article were pertinent, but were highlighted on the wrong platform. “These issues that he has raised in the media should have been raised in the politburo or at the central committee. They might be helpful ideas but this must be done in the politburo and not in public,” he said.
“Yes, we need to bring in the younger generation into the party’s leadership, we need to discuss and deal with corruption, but the media is not the right forum to raise those issues.”
Given the current volatile situation, the Mugabe succession crisis and all issues raised by Moyo are bound to explode within party structures as the debate on the next elections and Zanu PF’s future gets heated and intensifies.
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