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Tichaona Zindoga Political Editor
THE so-called independent media in Zimbabwe has lately been referred to as the “lunatic fringe”. This is a dismissive ascription they obviously deserve for being out of touch with the realities of the times and in particular being strangely obsessed with, and dogged in, issues many people would quickly move over more-so in a country like this that has a lot that needs attention.
But we may have been too naïve, too careless and too listless in observing and indeed judging the lunacy of this media fringe.
The reality of the matter is that this lunacy has an agenda and where the ruling Zanu-PF is concerned, it is an agenda to drive factionalism for reasons which we shall outline here.
It has to be stated from the onset that the private media have been peddling the story of factionalism and succession in Zanu-PF for close to 30 years now, obviously paying attention to the natural internal contradictions within the party.
The period leading to December 2014, which saw a congress that dismissed Joice Mujuru as the vice president at party and national levels, was the highest noon in the summer of factionalism coverage.
Yet, still, the post-Congress period did not kill the factionalism/succession narrative.
Rather, it only has but accentuated.
It has to be noted in all this that whereas in the days of yore, the aforementioned natural and internal contradictions would drive genuine talk about factionalism and succession permutations, today the private media have assumed the agency and cause of factionalism.
It is a situation where a lie has been said enough that it has become a truth.
Classic propagandists would look at us with envy.
What is critical and strange is that even Zanu-PF which used to dismiss the “lunatic fringe” with the contempt it deserved has somehow been forced to believe and play along the agenda of the private media to the extent that, as we speak, rival factions are now said to have aligned themselves to, and buying off staff at, certain newspapers.
The logic is this: because the story of factionalism has been given ill-deserved life, owned and driven by the private media, some politicians have now sought to control that space and playground of the private media.
The takeover is complete! Who says lunatics do not have an agenda?
It will be useful to illustrate just how the private media is driving factionalism for reasons we promised to expound. Take the story of the First Lady Grace Mugabe’s visit to Chimanimani for example.
While to the ordinary person, and millions watched her on television, the First Lady denounced factionalism in Manicaland and nationally and to her great credit actually refused to be drawn in the same and without mentioning any names, the stories in the private media on Friday painted a totally different picture.
“Grace takes war to Mnangagwa” was the headline in the Zimbabwe Independent.
Daily News told us that “Grace displays political power” and the Newsday led with the headline, “I’m Zanu PF referee – ‘Queen’ Grace”.
Interestingly, from the Independent’s story there is nowhere we see the First Lady taking any war to Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa, whom she did not even mention herself.
This reminds one of a story in the Daily News headlined, “No one can stop my wife: Mugabe” that came out on October 2, which one would assume concerned factionalism.
One would expect to hear the President say that in the story but, alas, you won’t because he did not say so!
We are told that, in Chimanimani the First Lady, “In a high-risk and adventurous power-seeking manoeuvre”, “intensified her blitz threatening a political tsunami against Vice-President Emmerson Mnangagwa and his chutzpah-filled faction pressing to take its leader to State House.” One wonders where this happened, or do we live on different planets?
And besides we don’t quite recall the First Lady purporting to be a “Queen”?
Dimensions of factionalism
But in the above we get one dimension of the factionalism narrative.
It is clear that the agenda in currency now is to pitch the First Lady versus Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa.
Previously, it was pitching the so-called Generation 40 which we were told was led by national commissar Saviour Kasukuwere.
We were told that Kasukuwere and his band were so power-hungry that they sought to torpedo VP Mnangagwa and prevent him from succeeding President Mugabe.
This narrative still remains in the background.
Rather, more specifically, it has been made a subsumed in the plot involving the First Lady hence we are told that the G40 now wants her to take over.
A third narrative involves Vice President Phelekezela Mphoko.
It would be recalled that there were days that a succession war was speculated between VPs Mphoko and Mnangagwa.
Now we are being told that the former is now behind, or in support of the First Lady against VP Mnangagwa.
So, the picture at the end of the day is that everyone in Zanu-PF, at least represented by the so-called factions are against VP Mnangagwa.
If the latter, and indeed his supporters are to believe this, it means that they have a reason to fight. Who wouldn’t?
As if to confirm this open and clear agenda setting, the Daily News followed up on Sunday with, “Mnangagwa’s allies fight back”.
The story said: “Allies of embattled Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa, who together with their Midlands godfather have been on the receiving end of unrelenting blows from their enemies in the warring post-congress Zanu PF over the past few weeks, are fighting back…well-placed Zanu PF sources who spoke to the Daily News on Sunday yesterday said Mnangagwa’s supporters had now had ‘enough’, with the events in Chimanimani on Thursday ‘the straw that broke the camel’s back’, and which necessitated that Grace, and not just the G40, also gets ‘special treatment’.”
It then quotes “a senior party official” who says “ominously but cryptically”, that: “For a long time now, we have concentrated our efforts on defending ourselves from the malice and divisive games of the G40 and other weevils (Zanu-PF Johnny-come-latelies). But it is clear that this is not working and that we need to do more. Unfortunately, this means that all the people who are attacking us left, right and centre now need special attention because the situation demands that we do so.”
Now, if anyone cannot see who is driving this agenda, they may need to get a fresh pair of eyes.
Rugare Gumbo:
Lurking in the shadows
It may be recalled that the most hard-hit and the bitterest victims of the purges for putschist sins in Zanu-PF are the likes of Rugare Gumbo, Didymus Mutasa, Kudakwashe Bhasikiti, Temba Mliswa, among others, bar Joice Mujuru herself who has not spoken much.
The spokesperson for this putschist cabal is Rugare Gumbo, and he did that pre-and post-December 2014.
One thing that is clear is that he is the one who sold the narrative of the so-called G40 as an agency of internal destruction of Zanu-PF.
Because of the centrality of the role that the likes of Cde Kasukuwere played in the fall of the putschist Godmother Joice Mujuru, the likes of Rugare Gumbo and Didymus Mutasa have never forgiven them.
More still, it is a fact that Cde Kasukuwere is a central figure in Zanu-PF as the political commissar and as a dedicated, experienced and determined cadre who no doubt has a great future ahead of him.
This is why he has been targeted and if you look closely at the statement of the purported senior party official above you can see the fingerprints of Rugare Gumbo and his gang. One can also link this to the story of some dubious characters allegedly planting stories in the Daily News.
This is not a surprise because the private media and Rugare Gumbo and his band long hammered a marriage of convenience born out of their common opposition to Zanu-PF.
For the former, it had to abandon its long-time love in the opposition MDC-T.
This takes us to the reasons why the private media is pursuing its factionalist agenda.
First, because it is hoped that when the ruling party implodes, the opposition will benefit.
The so-called People First project will be the immediate beneficiaries of this implosion because, having no power base and having no people to bring first, anyway, People First will tap into Zanu-PF’s base.
The implosion is also good for the amalgamation of the former Zanu-PF and MDC officials because it will be like the end of history from whence emerges a new order.
Or, if such does not come out, either party can head a post-Mugabe dispensation.
Secondly, the reason why proponents of confusion harp on about imagined factionalism is to sow seeds of doubt in the ordinary follower of the ruling party who becomes dispirited and at best does not participate in party processes and at worst abandons ship, most likely to join People First.
The third and less obvious reason for the obsession with factions in Zanu-PF is to divert attention from the opposition which is now comatose.
In light of the above, it is submitted that members of the ruling party introspect, find each other and, really, ask themselves how they can be allow themselves to be driven by an agenda set by the opposition media.
In fact they should have realised that long ago.
Online Reporter