The Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front clean-up exercise which started just before the party congress in December continued yesterday with national commissar Saviour Kasukuwere dissolving the Mashonaland East provincial executive and replacing it with a 15-member interim executive that will run the party affairs until April. The interim executive is led by former Education Minister and provincial governor Aeneas Chigwedere. “We have put the entire provincial executive aside and put a 15-person interim team in place to run the province. The duty of the interim executive is to organise the party structures so that by April a new executive will be in place. The mission of this interim executive is to ensure all structures are reorganised, from the cell, branch, district up to the provinces,” Kasukuwere said. “Individuals in Mashonaland East were now losing direction and selling off the revolutionary party. They were drifting away from the ideology of the party. We had reached a stage where some members had no respect for the party’s principles because they put their individual interests first. Some of you were pointing fingers at others and pursuing selfish interests to say so and so is gamatox. But we say to you, the net is closing in. We know all of you and very soon we will fish you out. Do not attempt to make yourself the fishermen because you will be the one to be fished out. Never put your own interests ahead of the party. This is the same mindset that led some to believe that they owned a certain number of provinces but look where they are now.” The purge which saw 16 top party officials including former Vice-President Joice Mujuru being reduced to ordinary party members was aimed at destroying a power centre built around Mujuru. Its kingpin in Mashonaland East was provincial chairman Ray Kaukonde who was accused of being the financial backer of the faction. Kasukuwere is on a nation-wide tour of the party provinces.
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