Any hopes that there would be a let-up in Zanu PF’s vicious tribal, factional and succession wars in 2017 have evaporated before the new year has barely got out of first gear, with the ruling party’s two brawling camps going at each other hammer and tongs this week.

On the one hand, the powerful Zanu PF women’s league — linked to the Generation 40 (G40) group, which is rabidly opposed to Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa succeeding President Robert Mugabe — confirmed to the Daily News yesterday that it was upping its efforts to regain one of the ruling party’s two vice presidency posts.

On the other hand, Zanu PF supporter and pro-Mnangagwa activist Energy Mutodi, has released his own 2016 ratings of the ruling party’s politburo members, in which he predictably rubbishes Mugabe and all G40-linked bigwigs while praising those who are in the opposite Team Lacoste camp (the Mnangagwa faction).

In an interview with the Daily News yesterday, women’s league secretary for finance Sarah Mahoka said — following last month’s complaint by Mugabe regarding Zanu PF’s lack of implementation of party resolutions — they would be going all out to ensure the re-introduction of the policy that guarantees a woman was one of the party’s two vice presidents.

“The president made it clear (at last December’s Zanu PF annual conference in Masvingo) that he was not happy with a situation where the party makes resolutions that are not implemented,” said the outspoken Hurungwe East legislator.

“So, Amai (influential First Lady Grace Mugabe, who also leads the women’s league) said we should start implementing all our resolutions now by making sure that the women’s quota clause is incorporated in the party’s constitution,” Mahoka said.

The women’s league, which was interestingly the only party organ which was given the chance to present its resolutions at the Masvingo conference, went big on the issue of women’s representation in Zanu PF’s presidium — in a move that party insiders say could torpedo Mnangagwa’s mooted presidential aspirations.

“We are concerned with lack of implementation of party resolutions made in 2015 in Victoria Falls. We made it clear that we wanted the constitution to be changed to allow an earlier provision that one of the two VPs should be a woman. This has not been implemented,” the league’s deputy secretary, Eunice Sandi-Moyo, thundered at the Masvingo gathering.

Mahoka said yesterday that the women’s league was waiting for Grace’s return from her month-long annual holiday with Mugabe, to receive instructions on how it would follow up on this critical issue and other league programmes.

“She is away right now and we are waiting for her return. Remember we take instructions from our leaders and all we do is carry out the work that is assigned to us. We do not talk too much, we act,” she said.

“Amai has said she wants women to participate more in the politics of the country, especially in the 2018 elections. She wants women to vie for elected positions and become MPs, councillors and so forth,” the Zanu PF Member of Parliament said.

“It is clear also what the president wants and we have since endorsed him as our candidate for 2018, despite claims by some sections that he was going to hand over power to someone else at the Masvingo conference, which did not happen,” she said.

“We expected those we hear to be harbouring ambitions to replace him to come forth and declare their interest, but all they do is talk, with no action. We want action that takes the country forward. We want to see our roads rehabilitated, and we want to see our economy picking up, not all this divisive talk they engage in every day,” Mahoka added in an apparent dig at Mnangagwa and his allies.

The Zanu PF Mashonaland West provincial executive has previously launched a stinging attack on the Midlands godfather, accusing him of failing to rein in his allies who are allegedly causing divisions in Zanu PF by pushing for his ascendancy to the presidency.

And her women’s league also accuses party secretary for legal affairs, Patrick Chinamasa — who is linked to Team Lacoste — of deliberately blocking the implementation of the controversial resolution to have a woman become one of the party’s two vice presidents again.

Writing on his Facebook page yesterday, businessman-cum-musician, Mutodi, savaged  Mugabe and all alleged G40 kingpins in his politburo ratings for 2016.

In a move that will horrify many of the increasingly frail nonagenarian’s supporters, he ranked Mugabe only at number four in terms of “performance”, in a list in which he predictably placed Mnangagwa first and Defence minister Sydney Sekeramayi number two.

Not surprisingly, his worst 10 politburo members, starting with allegedly “the most incompetent” were Vice President Phelekezela Mphoko, Higher Education minister Jonathan Moyo, Zanu PF youth league leader Kudzai Chipanga, Indigenisation minister Patrick Zhuwao, Local Government minister Saviour Kasukuwere, Sandi-Moyo, politburo member Cleveria Chizema, Industry minister Mike Bimha, Labour minister Prisca Mupfumira and Bulawayo resident minister Cain Mathema.

“ . . . Mugabe has shed three places in politburo rankings for the year 2016. The veteran president, who is the country’s only ruler since independence from Britain in 1980, has presided over a dying economy mainly due to his poor policies, corruption and economic mismanagement,” he said.

“Among these polices include the land reform and the indigenisation policies that do not only scare away investors but also breed unemployment and poverty. Zimbabwe no longer has a currency of its own and millions of its people have fled to other countries in search of employment and better standards of living,” Mutodi said.

“Mugabe’s poor rankings in the latest politburo rankings are best explained by his refusal to name a successor despite his old age, as well as his shielding of corrupt ministers from arrest. He has also been accused of nepotism after he appointed his son-in-law Simba Chikore as new Air Zimbabwe boss,” the maverick politician said.

“The president has also recently shown signs of poor reasoning after he fell prey to a G-40 led ploy to isolate him from his support base, mainly war veterans, who delivered the country’s independence,” Mutodi charged. – Daily News