A Zanu PF linked group that claims to be working for the restoration of Zanu PF’s founding principles alleges that Americans are working with some top government and ruling party officials in an effort to remove President Robert Mugabe from power.
Addressing a news conference in Harare, the coordinator of the group calling itself Save Zanu PF Campaign, Godfrey Tsenengamu, accused Higher Education Minister Jonathan Moyo of being an American front tasked with removing Mr. Mugabe from office.
Tsenengamu could not elaborate. Officials at the United States Embassy in Harare were also not available for comment. Studio 7 failed to also get a comment from Minister Moyo who was not answering his mobile phone.
President Mugabe has over the years accused America of spearheading a regime change agenda in Zimbabwe, with him being the prime target.
These accusation come in the wake of factionalism in the ruling party that has reached alarming levels with First Lady Grace Mugabe convening a rally recently where she publicly ridiculed a Zanu PF faction allegedly led by Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa calling itself Team Lacoste.
She claimed that the group is attempting to topple President Mugabe. She once levelled similar allegations against expelled former Vice President Joice Mujuru.
Some political commentators rubbished Tsengamu’s claims. One of them, Terry Mutsvanga, director of the Coalition Against Corruption, said America has more pressing issues on the international front than to focus on Zanu PF’s internal fights.
This view is also shared by another independent political analyst, Mlondolozi Ndlovu.
Tsenengamu further urged President Mugabe to reign in his wife saying the first lady’s rallies where she is ridiculing party members were dividing the fractious ruling party.
Tsenengamu also alleged that Local Government Minister Saviour Kasukuwere was harboring presidential ambitions. He alleged that the party’s political commissar was also using his party position to sideline some party figures that he suspects of standing in his way.
However, Kasukuwere told a rally addressed by Mrs. Mugabe in Mashonaland Central province last week that he was backing President Mugabe and declared war on anyone who would want to challenge him.
Local journalist Edgar Gweshe said factionalism in now rife in Zanu PF because President Mugabe has failed to groom a successor.
As factionalism intensifies in Zanu PF, the party’s politburo is set to meet tomorrow to discuss the internal fights in the party.
Zanu PF spokesperson, Simon Khaya Moyo, however, told Studio 7 that tomorrow’s event was not an extra-ordinary politburo meeting although some Zanu PF sources claimed that it was primarily called to discuss the widening rift in the ruling party.
