/ 14 May 2015

Mugabe weathers another storm

Joice Mujuru and Robert Mugabe.
Joice Mujuru and Robert Mugabe.

Zimbabwe Presidenct Robert Mugabe’s control of the ruling Zanu-PF is being put to the test as factional fights continue to dog the party over who will suceed the 91 year-old leader.

At the party’s elective congress in December last year, Mugabe purged then-vice president Joice Mujuru and loyalists who included dozens of senior officials. He also claimed that Mujuru was planning a coup using funds from the United States and United Kingdom.

Both countries, through their Harare embassies, denied any involvement.

Mugabe and his new set of lieutenants, including former aide Emmerson Mnangagwa who was elevated to the vice presidency at the congress, said the party had dealt with the succession issue. There were now indications that Mnangagwa was the heir apparent.

Five months later, more infighting has now broken out within the party, with a clique of liberation struggle veterans claiming some party bigwigs are working with Western countries to topple Mugabe.

Addressing a press conference in Harare on Tuesday, Victor Matemadanda, leader of the Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans’ Association, alleged some senior members of the party’s highest decision making body, the Politburo, were planning on “causing the ungovernability of Zimbabwe as a means of achieving regime change”.

“We are aware of the unholy alliance that is forming between the Americans and the British, on the one hand, and some politburo members, on the other,” he said.

The war veterans accuse the party’s chief national organiser Saviour Kasukuwere of being behind the plot, together with six other officials.

Kasukuwere dismissed the war veterans’ leaders as “drunkards”.

“They are drunkards; some of them are not real war veterans. They were taxi drivers in Zambia [during the liberation struggle],” he told NewsDay.

Southern Africa senior researcher at Human Rights Watch, Dewa Mavhinga, said since the December 2014 Congress, Mugabe has lost control of the party and disintegration was likely.

“Mugabe’s ‘Waterloo’ was the December 2014 Congress which demonstrated beyond a shadow of doubt that he had lost control of the party. If things fall apart now, the centre can no longer hold, and the disintegration of the party is likely to continue until its total demise or until there is a clear successor for Mugabe.”

Mavhinga pointed to the lack of a clear succession plan, which has fuelled speculation he might be angling his wife Grace for presidency.

Grace Mugabe entered mainstream politics last year, becoming chairperson of the powerful women’s league.

Mujuru is still reported to have influence within the party despite her expulsion, and Mavhinga said she could be a new centre of power.

He said Mujuru had been Mugabe’s deputy for 10 years and had been widely regarded as his heir.

Alex Magaisa, a Chicago-Kent College of Law professor and former advisor to then-prime minister Morgan Tsvangirai, said however that Mugabe was still firmly in control of the party

“Mugabe has always been behind the conflicts, he runs a puppet show. The conflicts between his subordinates benefit him more than anyone else because they deflect attention from him. Instead, they all pledge allegiance to him when they fight.”

Mugabe has remained at the helm of Zanu-PF for over four decades and is among the oldest African leaders. He has presided over an economic decline which led to millions of citizens fleeing to seek jobs in neighbouring countries.