FORMER Zanu PF secretary for administration Didymus Mutasa and ex-Mashonaland East provincial Minister Ambrose Mutinhiri have confirmed they are retracing their steps back to the ruling party, after brief but unfruitful flirtations with opposition politics.
Mutasa was kicked out of Zanu PF, at the same time as then Vice President Joice Mujuru in the mayhem that characterised the former guerrilla movement ahead of the 2014 congress. An attempt at opposing Zanu PF through the Zimbabwe People First party suffered a still-birth after members of the ‘Gamatox’ group, as the Mujuru faction was commonly referred to, turned on each other and broke into two before everything fizzled out.
Mutasa Sunday confirmed he was back.
“It happened a long time ago. I have been back in the party for sometime now, unless they expel me again.
“In the first place I never resigned,” the straight talking Mutasa said.
Asked if he has been able to set foot at Zanu PF headquarters, Mutasa retorted: “That headquarters is there because of me. Of course I have been there.”
When Mnangagwa was fired by Mugabe November 6, 2017, Mutasa rubbed it in, arguing the then Vice President who later returned to take over power on the back of a military coup only three weeks later, was the “author of his own problems.”
“I have got a soft heart for everybody, not only Mnangagwa but anybody who is treated unfairly. However, in this case I don’t think Mnangagwa was treated unfairly,” Mutasa reportedly said then.
He added that Mnangagwa had “popped champagne” when the Mujuru group that included him as secretary for administration in the ruling party had been sacked.
Mutinhiri, a career soldier, left Zanu PF in the aftermath of the 2017 coup. He met former President Robert Mugabe early last year and was anointed interim leader of a loose coalition of individuals known as the National Patriotic Front initially known as the G40 faction of Zanu PF, that was bitterly opposed to Mnangagwa’s rise to power.
However, Mutinhiri performed dismally in the presidential election in which he was a candidate. The former Mashonaland East provincial Minister, in a short response, also confirmed he was rejoining Zanu PF.
“Yes it is true,” was all Mutinhiri could say when contacted for comment.
O the other hand, former Vice President Joice Mujuru who according to State media is among former Zanu PF senior making their way back, was not immediately available for comment.
A facebook character claiming to be the war heroine dismissed the claims.
“I will never rejoin Zanu PF. I am not that desperate. There is my son to support. He is the president. The only way forward is forward not backwards,” the character said in a post.
Mujuru has in the past referred to MDC leader Nelson Chamisa as her son. However, the two failed to agree on a coalition ahead of elections last year and all took part as candidates in which the former Vice President scrapped a tiny vote. Chamisa has consistently claimed he won last year’s presidential election only for Mnangagwa to rig his way to power. – NewZim
