adminWalter Mswazie Masvingo Correspondent
THE Zanu-PF leadership in Masvingo says it is working towards fostering the spirit of unity following a fallout with some members in the run-up to the National People’s Congress held early this month.The affected members were perceived to be working in connivance with deposed former Vice President Cde Joice Mujuru to unconstitutionally unseat President Robert Mugabe.
Acting provincial chairperson Cde Paradzai Chakona said they were moving with haste to reunite the party with all those committed to the revolutionary party encouraged to bury the hatchet.
Cde Mujuru and a number of ministers were fired from government for plotting against President Mugabe in a development that also saw some party bigwigs losing their Central Committee positions. Former Zanu-PF spokesperson Rugare Gumbo was expelled from the party for plotting against President Mugabe.
In Masvingo province, some of the party’s bigwigs who were caught up in the political tsunami include former Energy Minister Cde Dzikamai Mavhaire, former chairman Retired Major-General Callistos Gwanetsa and ex-provincial Women’s League chairperson Cde Shyllet Uyoyo. They were all booted out.
Cde Chakona said Zanu-PF must be strengthened in the New Year and all those who lost their positions must work for the good of the party.
“We have a number of party ‘renegades’ who grew wings during the course of the revolution. We were on a cleansing exercise as a party but it does not necessarily mean that those who lost Central Committee seats are outcasts, they are part of us and we still need them back,” said Cde Chakona in an interview.
“In the New Year, our aim is to strengthen the party and we are extending an olive branch to those who were affected by the cleansing to work with others for the good of the party.”
Cde Chakona added that if President Mugabe managed to declare a policy of reconciliation at independence in 1980, it means that those who were affected in the run-up to the party’s recent Congress cannot be persecuted.
“If President Robert Mugabe managed to declare reconciliation with colonisers like Ian Smith who maimed our people, we cannot fail to do the same to party cadres. Our leader is a person of warm heart who wants unity among his members and Masvingo, we want to be champions towards bringing our members together,” he added.
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