The twists and turns in the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front, as people fight to position themselves for the party congress in December, took an ugly twist yesterday when party spokesman Rugare Gumbo claimed that some elements within the party were pretending to love President Robert Mugabe when they in fact wanted to get rid of him. But unlike Harare youth leader Godwin Gondwe who named senior officials like Didymus Mutasa, Tendai Savanhu, Noah Mangondo and Amos Midzi for creating chaos in the party, Gumbo did not name anyone. “We must all be wary of elements that feign love for President Mugabe and ZANU-PF yet their real agenda is to divert President Mugabe’s attention from the core business of government in order to create problems for the party and for President Mugabe in 2018 when elections are due. We have always known that there is a regime change agenda in place, only this time it is being pushed by our own people under the guise of loving President Mugabe. This is unacceptable behaviour, which smacks of deceit and a very high level of wickedness,” Gumbo said in a statement, reminiscent of what Vice-President Joice Mujuru said at the beginning of the year during the salary-gate scandal which everyone condemned. Mujuru told women in Mashonaland West: “Nditeererei madzimai, chandiri kukuudzai ndochinhu chekupedzisira. Iyi nyaya yatiri kutaura iyi yehuori hwemaparastatals muchenjere kuti ndeimwe nzira yaunzwa nevanhu vari kuda kupwanya nyika ino iyi. Vari kuziva kuti chii chakabata nyika yeZimbabwe. They know what is done by our parastatals. They will go and talk to some of our people and do what is happening. Vanotaura kuti kana tabva kuZBC, toenda kuZESA, toenda kuZINWA. Regai kuzoti vanhu vacho havasi veZANU-PF, aiwa, zvinonzi kana usingagone kumukurira unomujoina, worova uchibva mukati make, saka mochenjera. Saka tiri kuti nyaya iri mumaoko mehofisi President.” In his statement yesterday Gumbo went on: “Anyone who misdirects their focus to dwell on petty, narrow and immature politics is not only showing disrespect to President Mugabe who is genuinely determined to improve the welfare of the people — but is on the wrong side of history and should be ashamed of himself or herself. ZANU-PF won a historic five -year-mandate to address critical matters of national interest and that is what we should all focus on.” Gumbo was one of the rebels that objected to the new leadership of ZANU-PF just before independence and was detained in Mozambique. He was released just before the 1980 elections.
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