The opposition call for President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe to hand over power has been echoed worldwide, but less anxiously than the unpublished demand from within the ruling Zanu-PF.
A former army colonel, who refused to be named, said he foresaw a dramatic change after the forthcoming annual congress of the party. Most senior army officers also felt the need to replace the current party leadership ”with fresh and more serious individuals”.
He said there is likely to be serious clashes among the big guns in Zanu-PF over the corruption that has torn the party apart and caused the civil service to rot to unprecedented levels; even the police are reportedly soliciting for bribes in public.
The congress will take place in Zimbabwe’s most populous south-eastern province of Masvingo, a Zanu-PF stronghold and its most politically discordant region, on December 4-6.
Officials in the party said Mugabe, facing his stiffest opposition since independence in 1980, has swallowed his pride and allowed the crumbling party to recall abandoned nationalists and former guerrilla commanders. The development is likely to spell doom for the new faces he introduced into the party’s politburo and central committee over the years.
Political commentators said possible victims were Information Minister Jonathan Moyo, justice minister Patrick Chinamasa and agriculture minister Joseph Made, who have allegedly caused a lot of anxiety in Zanu-PF since they joined the government in 2000.
Tapiwa Padera, a war veterans’ leader in Chivhu district near Masvingo, said the recalled cadres include Webster Gwauya, Joseph Chimurenga, Dzinashe Machingura, a Doctor Mudzingwa, Mukudzei Midzi and Rugare Gumbo, who is deputy interior Minister.
Some of these people, Padera said, rebelled against the party long before the war against Ian Smith’s white minority rule was over in 1980. Padera expects the congress to rehabilitate them so that they can also enjoy the fruits of the liberation struggle.
”We differed politically in the past. But they are still Zimbabweans, whom we should win back so that they don’t go to the enemy,” he said, referring to the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).
Also expected to rejoin Zanu-PF is its former Secretary-General, Edgar Tekere, one of the presidential aspirants and a one time close ally of Mugabe. Tekere was fired from the party in the mid-1980s after disagreeing with Mugabe.
Mugabe this weekend told the Zanu-PF Central Committee in the capital, Harare, critical issues the congress would tackle include ”economic sabotage” and fuel shortages gripping the country. He avoided the issue of succession and the prevailing political impasse with the opposition.
Job Sikhala, an outspoken MDC legislator, said he did not expect anything new to emerge from the December gathering. ”It has always been a yearly talk shop since independence. I don’t see what you and me can expect from it …” he said.
Sikhala said there was a chance for better things if Mugabe handed over power, because Zanu-PF ”is not entirely made up of stooges. There are many progressive people in that party who would like to see this country prosper. Mugabe has been a stumbling bloc in the political dialogue, and there will definitely be progress if he is out of the way.”
Other commentators said the 79-year-old head of state should allow majority decisions at the congress, where there has never been a candidate to challenge him on the presidency.
”If that congress is to mean anything, Mugabe just has to step down and hand over to someone else, like what (Nelson) Mandela did in South Africa,” said businessperson Charles Butao.
He said the gathering comes when most basic needs are inaccessible to the majority of Zimbabweans. Fuel is in short supply, even taps have run dry in cities, food is 5 000 to 6 000 times more expensive, while prices continue to spiral and transport is a nightmare.
Butao said Zimbabwe needed a transitional government under either a religious leader or the speaker of Parliament, if sanity was to return to the country. Mugabe, he said, should also admit that his international ties have waned at the expense of the nation.
Zanu-PF, concerned about the deteriorating economy, is also occupied with court challenges against its legislators who joined parliament in 2000. Mugabe himself has been accused by Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of MDC, of stealing the vote in 2002. Yet Zanu-PF is expected to engage the opposition in dialogue.
Bishop Sebastian Bakare, head of a team of church leaders mediating in the proposed Zanu-PF/MDC talks, said there was no reason to wait for the Zanu-PF congress, as both parties had already submitted the topics they wanted discussed. He refused to reveal the contents of the documents.
Welshman Ncube, the MDC Secretary-General, said the proposed dialogue did not mean his group had given up its fight against results of both the legislative polls and presidential vote. The dialogue, if it came to fruition, would be mainly on the ballot disagreement, he said.
The ruling party also has more serious internal dissents to silence. The war veterans have managed to grab Mugabe by the collar to meet their demands. So-called ex-detainees and war collaborators are also calling for recognition and compensation for their contributions in the liberation struggle.
Yet another collection of young academics, business people, labour leaders and ex-combatants have emerged in the political shadows, with claims that it is a Zanu-PF creation aimed to weaken the main opposition. Such groups and the ruling party are said to have people lined up to take over from Mugabe.
Speaker of Parliament Emerson Mnangagwa, former interior minister Dumiso Dabengwa, former justice minister Edison Zvobgo, former information minister Nathan Shamuyarira and vice-president Joseph Msika have indicated interest in the top post if it fell vacant.
Most businesspeople and intellectuals prefer former Finance Minister Simba Makoni, who they say displayed a more sober frame of mind while with the United Nations and with the government, from which he was fired after calling for the devaluation of the local currency.
Endy Mhlanga, secretary-general of the Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans’ Association, said ex-combatants should now field their own candidate.
”It is now our turn to rule the land we fought for,” he said, without giving any possible names.
Zanu-PF, led by Mugabe, has ruled Zimbabwe for the past 23 years. Three years ago it fell out with the country’s former colonial power, Britain, sparking the worst economic chaos in the country’s history, after seizing white-owned farms for black resettlement. Its forthcoming congress has sparked wild speculations. – IPS