The Sunday Mail
Sunday Mail Reporter
Zanu-PF has taken disciplinary action against officials in its ranks who wanted the party leadership to step down, National Political Commissar Cde Saviour Kasukuwere has said.Cde Kasukuwere said that while others had escaped with cautioning, Zanu-PF would not tolerate “careless remarks” regarding its leadership.He emphasised that the Zanu-PF Women’s League push for a female Vice-President was not tailored to dislodge either of President Mugabe’s deputies in both party and Government, but a genuine empowerment drive.Cde Kasukuwere said this on Star FM’s “The Hub” programme last Tuesday as he responded to inquiries on issues affecting the party and his portfolio of Local Government, Public Works and National Housing Minister.
Senior producer/presenter Linda Muriro conducted the interview.
Reaffirming Women’s League boss First Lady Amai Grace Mugabe’s clarification on the female VP post, Cde Kasukuwere said, “This is the correct position that the party has always maintained. President Mugabe was elected by Congress in 2014. He was given the powers; we have one centre of power. He will make appointments of his Vice-Presidents in terms of the Unity Accord, which, again, gives him the authority to hire and appoint those he wants to work with.
“The development by the women is a progressive development; to say to us: ‘As women of Zimbabwe, women of the party, we also want to be involved in the leadership of the party.’ And there is nothing wrong with that.”
He also said: “So, the message by the First Lady is consistent with (the party position) and that is what everybody has been saying; that the President appointed the Vice-Presidents. The Women’s League came with a resolution last year where they wanted the reinstatement of a woman at the top and that was adopted and this was discussed, but it must never be used to target individuals.
“It is a position meant to strengthen the party not to target any individual or anyone in the party leadership. So, the call by the First Lady was appropriate and necessary to clear the air.
“Zanu-PF is based on ideology, very strong ideology and not on factionalism. And we have a leadership in place. Yes, there have been some careless remarks or calls on the leadership to step down. Some we have disciplined, and some we have sat down and told that this cannot be done.”
At the 15th Zanu-PF National Annual People’s Conference in Victoria Falls in 2015, the Women’s League resolved to push for the appointment of a female VP via amendments to the party constitution.
On September 30, 2016, Amai Mugabe told the Zanu-PF Women’s League National Assembly that the proposed amendments had been misinterpreted as a strategy to push out one of President Mugabe’s deputies, and expressed the league’s unreserved support for VPs Emmerson Mnangagwa and Phelekezela Mphoko.
Women’s League Deputy Secretary Cde Eunice Sandi Moyo followed up, warning party members found guilty of plotting the ouster of either VP would be punished.
Zanu-PF Secretary for Administration Dr Ignatius Chombo and all party provincial structures have also since backed the First Lady’s clarification of the matter.
