State Media|ZANU-PF yesterday warned party members in Bulawayo against abusing their proximity to President Mnangagwa to violate party procedures.

The party’s politburo member and Chitepo School of Ideology principal Munyaradzi Machacha, who is part of the team superintending over Zanu-PF Bulawayo District Coordinating Committee (DCC) elections set for today, said no one should claim to love the President more than other party members.

He was addressing war veterans during a meeting held at Stanley Hall in Makokoba suburb.

“He (President Mnangagwa) is the President for all of us. I therefore as Machacha cannot claim to love Cde Mnangagwa more than everyone else. I cannot with my clique claim to be Mnangagwa’s loyalists in Bulawayo sidelining everyone else in the party. When they (party members) are the ones who vote for President Mnangagwa and Zanu-PF. We have this group that claims to be closer to Cde Mnangagwa than everyone else. We say down with that,” he said.

Machacha said some of the party members were not learning from the past events which led to the military intervention in 2017.

He said Operation Restore Legacy was prompted by the conduct of some party members who were abusing their proximity to the late former President Robert Mugabe.

The military intervention saw former Cabinet ministers who include Mr Saviour Kasukuwere, Mr Walter Mzembi and Professor Jonathan Moyo going into exile.

“As war veterans if you remember we became famous when we held meetings with the late former President Mugabe on two occasions and complained that there was clique of people that had surrounded him behaving as if they were the ones who were more Zanu-PF than others.

“They did not have the party ideology and we told Cde Mugabe this. There was nothing we could be taught by Kasukuwere because there was nothing he knew. Now we are seeing a situation where some people want to repeat the same thing,” said Machacha.

He said Operation Restore Legacy was meant to remove thieves that had surrounded former President Mugabe.

Machacha said some people wanted to label others G40 loyalists ahead of today’s DCC elections so that they get disqualified.

“We expect to see a change in the quality of leadership after the DCC elections. People elected to office must come from the people and not individuals imposed,” he said.

Addressing the same meeting, Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans Association Bulawayo provincial chairman Cephas Ncube expressed concern over alleged vote buying ahead of the elections.