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ZANU-PF officials angling to succeed President Robert Mugabe should take heed of his wise counsel and desist from tearing the party apart through needless jostling and squabbling. The vanguard party does not need the petty fights which have come to characterise it in the past few months.
Instead, Zanu-PF — as the party that informs government — needs to concentrate on finding solutions to the country’s multi-faceted challenges. We therefore exhort party apparatchiks engaged in mortal combat to take the President seriously and knuckle down to the arduous task of uniting people and working for the good of the nation.
Speaking during a wide-ranging, belated birthday interview with the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation which was aired on Thursday night, Cde Mugabe said he is still very much around and any discussion about succession is misplaced as he was given a mandate by the people of Zimbabwe that runs until 2018. The President said he would not have accepted the mandate if he knew he would not be able to complete the five-year term.
He also rejected speculation that he wanted First Lady Cde Grace Mugabe to succeed him, saying leaders in Zanu-PF were appointed through a congress. “What successor? I’m still there! Why do you want a successor? You want me to floor you with a punch so that you feel that I’m still there? Is that what you want? Those are the things that cause problems, like you saw with Mai (Joice) Mujuru. You’ve people seeking lucky charms and visiting traditional healers, sometimes killing each other.
“When we went to Congress in 2013, the people said you’re the candidate in 2018. I didn’t say I was a candidate to retire, only to retire midway. I never said that. I was a candidate for the term — the term is a five-year term. Isn’t it?
“Otherwise why did I accept knowing that I was not fit, knowing that I was sick or I can’t manage? Can you say I’m unable [to do my work?]? How many houses did I just have? Three at 91 — Zimbabwe, Sadc [chairman] and AU [chairman]. Can you manage three wives at 91 yourself?”
President Mugabe said discussions about succession in Zanu-PF were alien to Zimbabwe. He said those who were making clandestine manoeuvers thinking that they would succeed him outside congress were fooling themselves. Said the President: “You want to say this one was left in charge, is this inheritance? We don’t do that in the party. It’s ridiculous. Now others say the President wants his wife to succeed him. Where have you ever seen that, even in our system, that your wife becomes your heiress? In my Gushungo clan that doesn’t happen, does it happen in your family?
“In a democratic party you don’t want leaders appointed that way to lead the party. You’ve people who’re fooling themselves, making pacts that you go in this time I’ll take over from you next. It doesn’t matter who. They have to be appointed properly by the people, properly by the people at congress. If you’re not elected at congress, just forget it. This thing of saying appoint a successor, I don’t know where such kind of thinking came from. It’s not part of our culture.”
The President’s comments come in the wake of intense jostling and emergence of two factions —G40 and Lacoste — which are positioning themselves to succeed him. We agree with Cde Mugabe that the infighting in the party is affecting its cohesion particularly in the urban areas and this is detrimental to unity.
Zanu-PF needs to realise the enormity of the task on its hands. For instance, the government’s economic blueprint ZimAsset needs to be implemented, grain needs to be imported to feed millions of Zimbabweans some of whom are on the verge of starvation and the 10-point plan has to be actualised.
We find it strange that the ruling party has time to engage in childish quarrels at a time the country is going through economic challenges. Zanu-PF is fortunate in that the opposition appears to be utterly hopeless and too divided to mount any serious challenge to it but we need to remind it that 2018 is not too far away and the damage caused by current internal fights might prove costly at the ballot.
We believe the President’s word is final and now that he has eloquently pronounced himself on the issue of succession, we expect disciplined party cadres to heed his warning and put a stop to their shenanigans. Factionalism is a cancer that if left unchecked has the potential of gnawing away at the root of the party and ultimately destroy it. We hope the various actors engaged in this divisive activity have been put on notice.
As President said, Zanu-PF is not short of members and it will chuck out troublesome cadres.
Online Reporter
derick.khumalo