A top ZANU PF senator has denounced President Robert Mugabe saying he must be done away with.
According to a ZANU PF memo leaked to ZimEye.com, Senator Tobias Matanga stood up during an inter-district meeting on Saturday 16th July in Chipinge and chanted the following slogan:
“Pamberi ne ZANU PF
Pasi naPresident Robert Mugabe.”
Below was the memo in full print which ZimEye.com is still investigating on:
 
REPORT ON THE CHIPINGE INTERDISTRICT MEETING HELD TO RELAY THE PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE
16 July 2016
 
 

• Background 

 
 
Mrs Sharai Sakabuya, a Central Committee Member was requested to be the Guest of Honour at the Chipinge Interdistrict meeting to relay the President’s nine-point message to people after Hon Mabel Chinomona failed to turn up. The Provincial PC, Cde Simon Mapfumo chaired the proceedings which commenced at about 11.00 am, at Tanganda Primary School.
 
 

• The Issue 

 
 
During a packed briefing, Senator Tobias Matanga, stood up to make an intervention on the subject of SI 64 of 2016, and made the following slogan
 
Pamberi ne ZANU PF
Pasi naPresident Robert Mugabe.
 
Pastor Jessica Chapfiwa, a war Veteran and a Provincial Council Member, Woman’s League, immediately interjected and asked the Senator what type of a slogan he had made. Nevertheless, the Senator proceeded to make his intervention and sat down. After some time, and on whispered advice from the Cde Mapfumo, the Senator stood up and apologized for having made such a slogan. As if contradicting himself, Senator Matanga said that he was a very senior member of ZANU PF and throughout his long stay in the Party, he had never made such a slogan. Surprisingly, he did not proceed to explain why then, given his experience in Party matters, he blundered so badly, if indeed it were a blunder.
 
But it is also known that “out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks”. Or psychologically, the mouth reveals what the heart harbours. True, a number of people have made sloganeering mistakes before, but each case needs to be examined in its own right. In the case under discussion, the sequence of events clearly dismiss the slogan as an accidental mistake. For example if the Senator had been remorseful for the slogan he had made, he could have apologized immediately before proceeding to make the intervention to the subject under discussion, as he did. Furthermore, a contrite person does not have to be reminded and advised to apologize.
 
Senator Matanga is a member of Mapfumo or Hon Enock Porusingazi’s Group. Hon Porusingazi, who was suspended for 5 years, started attending ZANU PF meetings, outside the allowed PCC meetings, shortly after Cde Mapfumo was coopted as the Provincial PC this year. Cde Mapfumo stubbornly and arrogantly defends Hon Porusingazi by arguing that he attends ZANU PF meetings in his capacity as an MP, and as such he was according the “High Table Status”. (Previously at a similar meeting at the same venue last month, the Provincial Chairman, Dr Samuel Undenge was also present and he ignored the objection to Hon Porusingazi’s presence at the meeting as a suspended member, let alone at the high table).
 
 

• A Trend of Related Events 

 
 
A recap of some of the events adds credence to the opinion that Senator Matanga’s slogan was a revelation of the new thinking in Cde Mapfumo and Hon Porusingazi’s group.
 

1. Last year, at a meeting in the Game Area of Ward 13, Cde Thomas Chipadza, another member of Porusingazi’s group made a slogan that “Pasi na Grace Mujuru”. Despite being rebuked by the MP, who was addressing the meeting, Cde Chipadza never made any retraction.

1. Towards the Congress of 2014, Cde Mapfumo phoned the Chairperson of Ward 17C in Nyagadza, Ms Rose Murira, and asked her how she was going to travel to Harare as a delegate. When the lady replied that she was going to check with the MP of Chipinge East Constituency, Cde Mapfumo rebuked her for being very behind the latest developments that all people “belonged” to Mai Mujuru. The lady, in her confusion, reported the conversation to the Chairman of Ward 17C, Cde Ngadziore.

1. Cde Davison Chivhovho, another member of Porusingazi’s group removed a t-shirt from a Party member called Cde Mtisi, in February this year. The t-shirt had President Mugabe’s insignia. The member was subsequently chained. This matter was reported to the Provincial Chairman, who has since ignored the case. Instead, Cde Chivhovho, who has many other criminal charges, was coopted into the Provincial Council.

1. At the Interdistrict meeting under discussion, Cde Mapfumo threated Chairpersons with disciplinary action if they held meetings without his approval. He also told the police who attended the meeting to bar any ZANU PF meetings that were held without his approval. But surprisingly, Cde Mapfumo does not organize ZANU PF meetings himself, if that was his sincere wish. In the meantime, ZimPF are holding an abundance of meetings.

1. To expose his double standards and creepy agendas, he instructed Ms Chipo Museri, the current ZANU PF Councilor in Ward 13 to organize a meeting ahead of the current MP doing the same, in order to lie that she had sourced a grader to rehabilitate the road to Nyamadzi School, where the MP was constructing a classroom block. Cde Chipo Museri is reported to be sponsored by Hon Porusingazi’s group to stand in Chipinge East Constituency to unseat the current MP. But it is now on record that Councilor Museri has made up her mind to stand in the same constituency as ZimPF candidate, battling out with Earnest Porusingazi, the son of Hon Porusingazi. If the formeris the correct position regarding Councilor Museri’s decision, it is against the standing Party guidelines for a Party member to destabilize a sitting MP, let alone by the person of the Provincial PC, Cde Mapfumo. If the position is the latter (that she will be the ZimPF candidate) then this position is strongly supported by the unfolding events and Cde Mapfumo’s behavior).

1. The Interdistrict meeting was to relay the President’s message. But Cde Mapfumo totally deviated from the purpose and used the platform to denigrate Cde Win Mlambo who was not present at the meeting because he had been deployed in Harare.

1. During the strikes of 7 and 8 July, MDC and other opposition activists in the small town of Chipinge forced the closure of supermarkets like OK and TM. It was public’s expectation that the PC, who comes from Chipinge must have arisen to the occasion and organized a reaction. He did not. The same in-activity from the PC was noticed when the small town was awash with ZimPF posters on Friday the 15th of July when Mai Mujuru was set to address a rally in Mutare. We had to organize youths to remove the posters during the night.

 
 

• Comments 

 
 
A number of negative events have taken place since the cooption of Cde Simon Mapfumo into the Provincial Council. It appears Cde Mapfumo is determined and is in a hurry to cause the reversal of all decisions which were taken by the Party, which negatively affected his group. It is also evident that Cde Mapfumo has managed to re-assemble a number of the dissolved DCC members of which he was the DCC Chairman, firmly in the Provincial Council. But very worrisome is Cde Mapfumo’s in-activity while ZimPF is having field days in Chipinge.
 
The greatest threat to the Party is not the opposition, but ZANU PF members who lie about fellow members and those who are double-dipping. Disappointingly, the Party stands by and watches the circus.
 
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