FORMER State vice president Kembo Mohadi has said multiple political were not necessary for Zimbabwe because Zanu PF has the capacity to fulfil people’s needs.
Mohadi, who left government in disgrace after a sex scandal, was addressing traditional leaders in Kwekwe on Wednesday.
Traditional leaders are supposed to be politically neutral, but this has not been the case as chiefs and headmen have been accused of supporting the ruling party.
“The reason why I have come here is because I have been sent to you by the President. In the army where I come from, if you are given an order by your command they don’t ask you to follow the command,” said Mohadi.
“He (Mnangagwa) wants to see Zanu PF working with people every time for economic development. He wants to see leadership meeting with traditional leaders.
“He wants to see the country working together. In that regard, he saw it fit to give me a job of unifying people in Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe needs a single party, it doesn’t need many parties and that party is Zanu PF,” he said.
Mohadi claimed during the liberation struggle ZANU and ZAPU had always been working towards becoming a single party.
“The argument then was, since we are fighting a single enemy, why can’t we have a single party that is ZANU and ZAPU then,” he said.
He said such sentiments saw the formation of the Zimbabwe People’s Army (ZIPA) during the liberation war, though ZIPA suffered a stillbirth due to internal divisions.
Mohadi, who went on to describe the Gukurahundi genocide period as “disturbances”, said efforts for unifying ZANU and ZAPU were always being done.
“Efforts to unify the two liberation parties were always in place from the liberation days right up to independence and even the war of disturbances post-independence, the dissidents’ issues and Gukurahundi efforts for unifying ZAPU and ZANU were always in place. Hence the formation of Zanu PF,” he said.
“I hear some people saying ZAPU was swallowed but there was nothing of that sort. Instead, it was unity for Zimbabweans.
There is no Shona, there is no Ndebele, we are one. We are all Zimbabweans and we are equal,” he said.
He said chiefs needed to be wary of the opposition as it was working with foreign forces. – Newzim
