Charamba writes off Kasukuwere – says he is not worth even a spoilt ballot

Zimbabwe President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s spokesman George Charamba has written off former Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front political commissar Saviour Kasukuwere as a presidential contender in the 23 August elections saying as a candidate his significance and value hardly surpasses a farthing which cannot procure even an unregistered voter or a spoilt ballot.

Writing in the Herald under Jamwanda, Charamba said: “No serious politician should waste time on him, any more than he does on himself. His forlorn hope is to gain significance by causing the authorities to wave a charge sheet in his face.”

Charamba said that although reports said Kasukuwere had thrown his hat into the presidential race, he only seemed to have caused a stir in the social media and not in the “work-a-day world where politics and politicians are made and unmade”.

“Interestingly, debate on social media is not on or about his chances. Rather, it is on and about whose vote he is likely to split!,” Jamwanda writes.

“Which seals and immortalises his political fate as the nearly man of Zimbabwe’s political contest. Again interestingly, some supporters in the ruling party and the opposition alike are angry with him, ironically for the same fears his ordained role seem to trigger!

“He will eat into ED’s vote, a few impressionable ones in the ruling party opine; he will divide opposition vote thus undermining Chamisa, many in the opposition think and fear.

“Between both camps is no Chinese wall! For both roles he needs no schizophrenia. Not even a gossamer veil!

“What is my view about him? Well, as a candidate his significance and value hardly surpasses a farthing which cannot procure even an unregistered voter or a spoilt ballot paper.

“No serious politician should waste time on him, any more than he does on himself. His forlorn hope is to gain significance by causing the authorities to wave a charge sheet in his face,” Jamwanda says.

Kasukuwere was one of the kingpins behind the G40 group that backed former First Lady Grace Mugabe to succeed her husband but even then, reports said that Kasukuwere, and his colleagues who included Jonathan Moyo, just wanted to use Grace as a stepping stone to the throne.

Their plans were scuttled when the military intervened in November 2017 and ushered Mnangagwa as president.

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