Former Masvingo Provincial State minister Kudakwashe Bhasikiti has lashed out at First Lady Grace Mugabe and Vice President Phelekezela Mphoko, saying the two have no authority to expel him from Zanu PF.
Bhasikiti told the Daily News that he will not be expelled from the ruling party by a politburo that is packed with people who were illegally appointed to their positions.
In defiance of last week’s Zanu PF decision to expel him along with seven other senior officials from the party, the outspoken former politburo member said it was unacceptable that people who do not even know him are now pronouncing judgment on him.
The expulsion of Bhasikiti from Zanu PF has already triggered intense jostling for his soon-to-be-vacant Mwenezi East constituency.
However, the incumbent is resolute he will see out his term until 2018.
“At the moment, no one can expel anyone from the party because the chairperson Simon Khaya Moyo and the secretary for administration Didymus Mutasa have never sat down and considered my case,” he fumed.
“The outcome of the congress has been challenged and I only recognise a disciplinary committee headed by Cde Moyo and Cde Mutasa,” Bhasikiti added.
Mutasa, the former State Security minister, apart from dragging Zanu PF to court seeking nullification of the 2014 December congress, still defiantly refers to himself as the secretary for administration of the ruling party.
But on the other hand, Khaya Moyo has accepted his fate and his less influential position as a spokesperson of the party.
But with the ruling party on a warpath and purging all people aligned to ousted former Vice President Joice Mujuru, Bhasikiti said there is a desperate attempt to create a contingent of bootlicking MPs.
“The new Zanu PF is trying to find new MPs but I cannot be expelled from Parliament because the congress that brought this Zanu PF was illegal,” Bhasikiti said.
“When we were elected in 2003, we never heard of Mphoko, Grace or Togarepi. I don’t listen to them. Who is Mphoko? Who is Grace? I can only sensitise the judiciary system so that they stand guided accordingly.”
Mphoko and Grace are both members of the ruling party’s disciplinary committee that has so far expelled dozens of former party heavyweights. But the victims, most of them accused of siding with Mujuru, claim due process was not followed as they were not invited to defend themselves.
Asked if he would succeed with the court case after the failure by Mutasa, the former Headlands MP and Temba Mliswa, the former Hurungwe West MP to have the courts spare them from parliamentary recall, Bhasikiti said he has so many options.
“Should the judiciary fail to act, I know the people who elected me will act,” he said.
“I am a full member of Zanu PF and will serve the people who voted me into office. People like Mphoko and Grace are out of the question, does he even know me? Ana Grace Bhasikiti vanomuzivirepi? (Where does Grace know me from?). Our recognised leaders never sat in that meeting that expelled us.” DailyNews