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Tendai Mugabe Harare Bureau—-
THE First Lady Cde Grace Mugabe yesterday slammed some misguided elements in Zanu-PF whom she accused of attempting to set her up against the country’s two Vice Presidents Cdes Emmerson Mnangagwa and Phelekezela Mphoko in furtherance of their sinister agendas. Addressing the inaugural meeting of the Zanu-PF Women’s League national assembly in Harare yesterday, Cde Mugabe said such people would never succeed.
She said the country’s leadership was aware of such nefarious plots and machinations.
The First Lady said she respected the two VPs appointed by President Mugabe to assist him in executing his duties.
“Ndinoda kudzokorora zvandakataura nezuro kuti panobuda zita raVice President Mnangagwa vachisvibiswa, pobuda ravaMphoko vachisvibiswa,” (I want to repeat what I said yesterday that wherever Vice President Mnangagwa’s name appears being rubbished, Vice President Mphoko’s name also appears in bad light), she said.
“Vese vari kudaro must stop it. Hamumbofa makatikwanisa. Hamumbofa makakwanisa kurwisanisa Mai Mugabe nema Vice Presidents. Muri kuona zvinenge zvichiitika, vanhu vanosiya baba (President Mugabe) vanoti baba havatauri vanenge vachida kundirwisanisa ini nema Vice Presidents. (All those who say that must stop it. You won’t succeed. You won’t succeed in dividing me and the Vice Presidents. What’s happening is that people leave the President out, trying to pit me against the Vice Presidents.
“Handisi kumbofa ndakarwisana nemadzibaba aya. Ndoda kuti zvinzwike nhasi. Hamuna kumbonzwa vaMphoko vachiti dai vaMugabe vafa ndaenda pachinzvimbo. Hamuna kumbonzwa vaMnangagwa vachidaro. (I’ll never fight against these two men. I want to make that clear today. You’ve never heard Cde Mphoko saying he wishes President Mugabe would die so that he takes over. Neither have you heard Cde Mnangagwa saying the same thing)
“Hakuna chinhu chakadaro chiri kuitika but tinoziva kuti kune ny’any’a dziri bent on dividing our party.” (There is nothing like that but we know that there are mischievous people who are trying to divide the party.)
Cde Mugabe said the two VPs were appointed to assist the President and people should leave them to do their job.
She said as the Women’s League they were working harmoniously with the two VPs.
“Takaenda imwe nguva kuKadoma tikaenda tese nababa Mnangagwa nababa Mphoko,” she said. (At one time I went to Kadoma accompanied by both Cde Mnangagwa and Cde Mphoko,” she said.
“Baba (President Mugabe) vakazviona paTV vakauya vakanditi well done. Ndinoda kuona vatevedzeri vangu vachishanda zvakanaka. (The President saw it on TV and said ‘well done’. I want to see my vice presidents working together nicely) That is very good and they should actually have more of those meetings dzavanobuda vese vachishanda zvakanaka (where they show that they are working together).
“And muri kuzviona ndozvavari kuita vari kushanda zvakanaka. Tinozvikudza. Zvese zvekuti kune madifferences hakuna chakadaro. Handina kumbonzwa vachikwikwidzana kana zuva rimwe. Saka hatidi kuti vanhu vatinyebere.” (And you can see that they are working together as a team. We’re happy about that. All this talk about differences, there’s nothing like that. I’ve never heard of them competing. We don’t want people lying to us.)
Cde Mugabe said there was peace and unity in the party.
She said differences were there last year but President Mugabe, in his capacity as the First Secretary of Zanu-PF, dealt with the scourge decisively.
Cde Mugabe said the President showed the “red card” to some divisive elements that were causing disharmony in the party.
“Pembe yakarira, referee chaiye chaiye varipo (President Mugabe), ini ndiri lineswoman, referee chaiye akaona kuti lineswoman ari kugona basa vakaona kuti umwe mutambi webhora ari off side, referee vaMugabe ndokusimudza red card kuti iwe chibuda. “If the whistle blows, the real referee is here (President Mugabe), I’m the lineswoman, the real referee saw that the lineswoman was doing her job properly, and realised that one soccer player was offside, referee Mugabe showed the player a red card.”
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“Munoziva kuti kana rasimudzwa red card kana wabuda wabuda. Kana muri muZanu-PF ukasimudzirwa red card kana wabuda haudzoki.” (When a red card has been shown you’re out. If you’re in Zanu-PF you’re out forever.)
Cde Mugabe said the Women’s League was working well with the Youth League and her predecessor Cde Oppah Muchinguri.
She warned land barons who were parcelling out state land to unsuspecting home seekers to stop henceforth.
Cde Mugabe said some of the land barons and baronesses applied for land near towns for farming purposes but in the long run started to subdivide it allocating residential stands.
“Equally disturbing are the corrupt dealings regarding the very heritage and natural resource that was at the centre of our bitter struggle for independence — the land,” she said.
“Self proclaimed land barons are selling national land at exorbitantly and prohibitively high prices thereby depriving the needy access to land. The majority of the causalities are women. Surely this must stop forthwith.” Cde Mugabe said the Women’s League was embarking on resuscitation of various national projects that benefitted women and the youths. She said at Melfort Farm in Goromonzi efforts were underway to re-register Nehanda Primary School and in Binga efforts were being committed to resuscitate the Bulawayo Kraal Irrigation Scheme.
Cde Mugabe said she wanted the Bulawayo Kraal project to be run professionally and benefit the people of Binga where MDC-T and some non-governmental organisations were dominating.
“We look forward to an arrangement where the project will be run professionally and commercially befitting any business enterprise,” she said. “This will call for a drastic mindset change and a paradigm shift for this to happen. This also applies to all other projects. In addition to the irrigation project, the (Women’s) league has gone further by issuing 10 permits to groups of women and youths in Binga. These empowerment initiatives mark our initial inroads into an NGO/MDC dominated territory.”
Cde Mugabe appealed to President Mugabe to increase the number of women in key decision making positions.
She said the Women’s League was committed to work for the party to ensure a resounding victory in 2018.
Online Reporter
Bongani Ndlovu