HARARE - The Women’s League vote is driving another rift in President Robert Mugabe’s faction-ridden Zanu PF as officials question the legitimacy of the poll amid violence and “kidnappings”.
Days after the Youth League vote was sullied by allegations of electoral fraud and vote buying. Officials said bacause of the violence it would be “absurd” to proceed with the Women’s League vote at the conference which starts today.
Discord over the internal election is pushing Zanu PF’s two main factions said to be led by Vice President Joice Mujuru and Minister Emmerson Mnangagwa further apart.
Another disputed election would highlight the party’s difficulties in asserting control as the party’s unrest spreads countrywide.
Kwekwe Central Zanu PF MP Masango Matambanadzo’s bouncer on Monday “bashed” the secretary for security for Kushinga, Marco Msipa at Amaveni Shopping Centre after accusing him of
being aligned to the Mnangagwa faction.
Matambanadzo reportedly charged that Mnangagwa was “finished” and that Msipa was wasting time backing him. Msipa claimed he reported the matter to the police.
Matambanadzo, who is linked to the Mujuru faction, declined to comment on the alleged assault that came just a few weeks after he was involved in a public fist fight with fellow Zanu PF legislator for Gokwe — Kana Owen Ncube in Kwekwe over allegations of fanning violence.
“Who told you that I fought Msipa? Do not just rush to conclusions,” he told the Daily News yesterday before hanging up. Efforts to reach him later were futile.
The Kwekwe incident flared up as Oppah Muchinguri, the Women’s League boss, addressed an unprecedented press conference at the Zanu PF headquarters in Harare on Monday detailing three kidnapping incidents she said had taken place in Mashonaland Central, Masvingo and Manicaland, where delegates were held against their will.
Muchinguri sensationally claimed that party bigwigs had kidnapped and sequestered Women’s League members in the three provinces in a bid to coerce them into voting for their preferred candidates ahead of their conference today.
However, the Zanu PF leadership in the three provinces dismissed Muchinguri’s claims as “cheap politicking” ahead of the Women’s League election, which has turned out to be the new theatre of action for the warring factions.
Callisto Gwanetsa, Zanu PF’s Masvingo provincial chairman, claimed no member of the Women’s League had been kidnapped or intimidated in the province.
“I think those who are making such allegations are just politicking because we are on the ground here and we have not received any such reports,” Gwanetsa told the Daily News.
“Even the (Women’s) League’s provincial chairwoman Shyllet Uyoyo has not given me such a report.”
There have also been reports that the party’s inter-district elections that were held on August 6 in the Midlands province had been characterised by kidnappings and intimidation.
Melania Mahiya, the Zanu PF MP for Gokwe-Gumunyu, yesterday wrote a formal complaint to Zanu PF national chairman Simon Khaya-Moyo protesting that the elections had been rigged.
Mahiya, who was seeking to be nominated for the post of women secretary for administration, but lost to Flora Bhuka, alleged that about 55 chairpersons had been held captive for a whole week, denying her the chance to canvass for their votes.
“On the date of accreditation, the 55 chairwomen were ferried in 13 kombis (minibuses) to the accreditation venue where I was denied the chance to talk to them as they were heavily guarded by main wing members namely Renias Madende, Stephen Ngwenya, NCA (National Consultative Assembly) members namely Tariro Mutingwende and her husband Sabian Chiromo and three chairpersons from Nembudziya constituency namely Jetina Marange, Kudzai Mtema and Shupikai Masonga,” reads Mahiya’s August 13 complaint to the National Elections Directorate.
While Mahiya claimed that she had made a police report at Nembudziya Police Station, police said in a statement yesterday that they had not received any reports of violence or kidnapping.
Paul Nyathi, the police spokesperson, said they had checked after party officials had approached them to confirm the allegations.
“We have since checked with all our stations, districts and provinces and for the record, no kidnapping cases have been reported,” Nyathi said in a statement.
The police spokesperson said the public should report such cases at police stations who are mandated with investigating and accounting for suspects.
“We therefore appeal to anyone with information on the kidnappings to report to the nearest police station so that necessary action can be taken,” Nyathi said.
The Zanu PF National Elections Directorate met yesterday at the party offices in Harare to iron out the differences that are threatening to tear the party apart.
Insiders said there was little doubt that the legitimacy of the Women’s League elections will be questioned and most probably not accepted by some party officials.
Zanu PF remains determined to hold “honest and transparent elections,” administration secretary Didymus Mutasa has said.
Criticism of Zanu PF’s handling of elections upped after violence escalated recently, with officials telling the Daily News that Mugabe was “deeply outraged at the actions of some officials, actions that can only be described as criminal”.
Attitudes are also hardening. Rival factions have set out to create “a centre of instability, indeed anarchy” in the internal elections, the senior official told the Daily News. The conflict is “due to rival factions’ aggression,” he added.