EXTRA, EXTRA, PLOT TO OUST MUGABE!!!!!

The Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans Association’s secretary for information and publicity, James Kaunye on Wednesday told The Financial Gazette that his association was aware that some power hungry individuals within the party were plotting against the ZANU-PF leader in a bid to take over, but warned that such moves would be thwarted as they were not motivated by party or the national interest, but rather individual selfish interests. The revelations dovetail with recent media reports suggesting that some within ZANU-PF considered President Mugabe (89) as an electoral liability due to age and health concerns, hence their wish to replace him as the party’s presidential candidate before the polls. President Mugabe faced the same resistance in the run-up to the 2008 harmonised elections in a development that saw a ZANU-PF faction led by former Politburo members Simba Makoni and Dumiso Dabengwa alleging that he was not the right candidate, before the former went on to run as an independent candidate.In that poll, Makoni came third, while the ZANU-PF leader trailed Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC-T) in the first round of voting, athough the former trade unionist could not reach the threshold required in the Constitution to claim the presidency.  In the ensuing presidential election run-off, ZANU-PF resorted to every trick in the book to thwart a possible loss in a poll observers said was not free and fair. It now appears that there are some within the party who still feel their leader would not be able to defeat the MDC-T leader in an undisputed poll, hence the moves to replace him. But Kaunye vowed this week that President Mugabe, who is also the war veterans’ patron, remains the party’s candidate and would deliver victory as he was the people’s favourite.

The war veteran added that the incumbent was endorsed at congress by the party and no one stood to oppose that endorsement and, as such, any bid to challenge the outcome of that congress now would be subversive. “Pane vamwe vanonokerwa nekuda kutonga (There are some who are now impatient to come into power), but as war veterans we remain steadfast; we are in support (of the President’s candidature) and there is no one who feel otherwise. The only reason why there are people who feel otherwise would be selfish interests,” said Kaunye. For the sake of unity, Kaunye said malcontents would be told to rally behind the party’s presidential candidate as this was not the time for divisions since ZANU-PF needed every member to pull in one direction ahead of elections.
“We want everyone to support (President Mugabe) at all costs, even if one might be doing it under protest. We don’t want to fan any further divisions,” added Kaunye. ZANU-PF is also torn apart in almost all the provinces by infighting linked to President Mugabe’s succession. The revolutionary party is also at loggerheads with all the other political parties in the country in its bid to have polls before June 29. MDC formations and Mavambo-/Kusile/Dawn want voting to be moved forward in order to first implement reforms that would guarantee an uncontested poll outcome. The party is also under immense pressure from the Southern African Development Community and South African President Ja-cob Zuma to cooperate for purposes of delivering a free and fair election.
On Wednesday, Zuma’s facilitation team revealed that it had invited all negotiators for a meeting and met MDC representatives’, but ZANU-PF’s Patrick Chinamasa and Nich-olas Goche did not show up or give reasons for their absence.

“The MDC parties we met yesterday conveyed to us what they believe are the real reasons why ZANU-PF did not attend the meeting of the negotiators. On our part we believe ZANU-PF representatives must have had a plausible reason for staying away. We don’t believe their action was in any way an act of bad faith,” said the facilitation team in a statement “We are returning soon to Zimbabwe and believe all concerned will cooperate as we all search for the best instruments to ensure that the entire Zimba-bwean population gets leaders who shall have emerged from a credible process, which shall be underpinned by a free and fair election.”