HARARE – Former Zanu PF secretary for administration Didymus Mutasa has set conditions for his return to the former liberation movement including demanding an apology for the manner in which he was hounded out at the height of the party’s infamous purges in 2014.
Mutasa, 82 next week, was jettisoned from the fractious Zanu PF in 2014 — together with senior officials who included former Vice President Joice Mujuru and ex-spokesperson and Cabinet minister Rugare Gumbo — over untested allegations that they wanted to topple President Robert Mugabe.
Reacting to Mugabe’s spokesperson George Charamba’s statement that the doors were open for him to meet the Zanu PF leader, Mutasa said he could not be told what to do by “nonentities” like Charamba.
“It takes politeness and a sorry if they want me back, maybe (Ignatius) Chombo as the secretary for administration should write to me stating why I was expelled in the first place. Charamba has nothing to do with this.
“It is the president who knows better. If you ask Charamba and the others why I was expelled they don’t even know but to repeat lies that I was talking to Mujuru.
“Yes, I was talking to Mujuru because she was the vice president of the party as well as the country.
“I had no choice at that time but to leave Zanu PF because of the vendetta between Mai Mujuru and Mai Mugabe.
“I even engaged the president about that, but he could not act so we were left with no choice but to leave Zanu PF,” Mutasa told the Daily News.
Basking in the sun at the back of his humble dwellings in Umwinsdale, Mutasa looked worn and tired, and loudly contemplated leaving politics for good.
“I am not prepared to go back to Zanu PF unless they change their approach and follow the law.
“Look at countries like Botswana and Tanzania where we were based during the liberation struggle, those countries have roadmaps that they follow and we don’t have any,” he said.
The country’s first Speaker of the National Assembly has lately been singing the blues.
Charamba claims he has approached Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa asking him to arrange a meeting with Mugabe.
“It is a lie that I phoned Mnangagwa asking to meet the president, no. I called him explaining that the messenger of court was disrespecting a Supreme Court order since he is the minister of Justice.
“For some strange reason, he said that he would talk to (Justice Rita) Makarau but to date I still have not been given my sofas back as per the court ruling,” Mutasa said.
Even though all is not well for the former State Security minister, Mutasa said he would not beg to be re-admitted into the ruling party.
“If they really want us back in Zanu PF, then they should phone every opposition leader because at one point we were all once in Zanu PF, including (MDC leader Morgan) Tsvangirai, we are all from Zanu PF,” Mutasa said.
And he told the Daily News that even after the ridicule he suffered at the hands of his erstwhile comrades, he is ready to meet his old buddy Mugabe, the man he still admires a lot and refers as President or Baba Mugabe.
“I have lots of respect for comrade Mugabe. If he wants to meet me even tomorrow, I would go. He was lied to that we wanted to kill him.
“I would go to his office respectfully. I don’t think he is the president of Zanu PF only but also the president of Zimbabwe.
“Look, Zanu PF is already in ruins and for now I would rather be with ZPF (Zimbabwe People First) but it will be good to meet the president and talk about the economy and other issues,” Mutasa told the Daily News.
After leaving Zanu PF along with the likes of Mujuru and Gumbo, Mutasa was crucial in the formation of the ZPF which has been dogged by problems ever since the former vice president left to form her own outfit, the National People’s Party, after she fell out with her former colleagues.
And there is nowhere to run for the soft spoken Mutasa who says he is ready to quit the so-called dirty game once and for all, whether outside Zanu PF as a brooding old man or maybe back with Mugabe, his old comrade.
