FORMER Cabinet minister Walter Mzembi has rebuffed calls for him and other exiled erstwhile Zanu PF top cats to return home and join a mooted splinter ruling party outfit, Zanu PF Original — warning that the governing party was “a beast not to be played with”.
Speaking to the Daily News yesterday, Mzembi said it would be foolhardy for him to even think about coming back to Zimbabwe at the moment, adding colourfully that “only a fool is lured back into a snare”.
This comes after sacked former Zanu PF youth leaders, Jim Kunaka and Godfrey Tsenengamu, recently announced the formation of Zanu PF Original — which they want Mzembi and other self-exiled former Cabinet ministers like Saviour Kasukuwere to be part of.
“Not even David confronted the beast. The beast is a system, and it’s not confronted the Goliath way. How come David, after flooring Goliath, ran away from Saul?
“Saul was the system. So, you don’t fight a system like you are fighting an individual. I am smarter than that.
“There are more effective ways of confronting the system, not reckless responses where you end up ineffective,” Mzembi told the Daily News.
“Only a fool is lured back into a snare. The timing of a comeback must be divinely perfect, just like Moses’ return which only happened after his burning bush encounter.
“He (Moses) was strengthened by that encounter and given the spiritual empowerment to confront Pharaoh.
“Until one hears from the ‘still voice’ like David when he was in exile, these (Tsenengamu and Kunaka) are just other motorists revving their cars at a red robot. If you are politically dumb you go through it,” Mzembi added.
“Many did that with fatal consequences. If you plot to bring down a system, it is different from confronting an individual.
“In November 2017, our people were used to foolishly bring down an individual, leaving the system intact. Iyezvino mhere murenjekwa (now there are massive outcries),” he also said.
Mzembi said further that Zanu PF was so scary that even when it turned against President Emmerson Mnangagwa, when ED was still the late former president Robert Mugabe’s deputy in 2017, “he ran for dear life and only came back when the system had recalibrated and pledged its allegiance to him”.
The former Masvingo South MP also said there was currently “nothing to suggest” that there was a fertile ground for a revolution that would sink Zanu PF.
“Vanhu vachiri kukiyakiya (people are hustling). They will carry on with their business as usual, while you languish alone in prison. That’s the nature of our people. They are very selfish.
“They don’t have the pedigree of North Africa. So, until they go through their own preparation, their marinating, they will actually help to flog you as they did with the Messiah!
“My assessment is that this struggle is both internal and external. Both efforts aiding each other. We must support the internal struggle with all our might and intellect, especially around the best foot forward,” Mzembi said further.
This comes as Kunaka’s announcement has triggered sharp responses from the government and its supporters.
Last Thursday clergyman Obadiah Musindo, who is an ardent supporter of Mnangagwa and Zanu PF, warned the regrouping Generation 40 (G40) faction saying it would be dealt with ruthlessly if it continued to attempt to foment chaos in the former liberation movement.
Speaking on independent television station 3Ktv’s widely followed programme, Vantage, Musindo — who leads the inter-denominational Destiny for Africa Network — added that Mnangagwa’s patience with his detractors was not a sign of weakness.
This came after both Kunaka and Tsenengamu tore into Zanu PF and Mnangagwa, stating further that Kasukuwere should return home to lead the newly-launched Zanu PF Original party.
“For starters, it’s not Zanu PF Original because they were not there when Zanu PF was formed. Jim Kunaka was not even born then. Kasukuwere was also not born when Zanu PF was formed in 1963.
“In politics we need to avoid becoming emotional politicians. Any political party formed out of bitterness, out of personal hatred … doesn’t last.
“These guys … are attempting to do all sorts of things by avoiding ancient wisdom. They should just humble themselves and ask for forgiveness and re-join the party (Zanu PF),” Musindo told 3Ktv.
“They don’t have the capacity to remove Mnangagwa. Mnangagwa was there with (the late former president Robert) Mugabe and he provided Mugabe’s security.
“They came a long way together. But Mnangagwa was frustrated left, right and centre. They (the G40) abused him. They called for rallies and they attacked him. But he remained in the party. They wanted to expel him.
“They had to push him out of the party, but the party pushed him back. It’s a system. Zanu PF is bigger than individuals,” Musindo said further.
“Let them not commit political suicide … look at what Jonathan Moyo is doing. He’s doing a fantastic job despite the fact that he has … some bitterness. He’s still defending his Zanu PF,” he added.
Musindo also said it was staggering that the G40 faction wanted to be seen as sympathetic to Vice President Constantino Chiwenga, yet it was the same faction that pilloried him for being loyal to Mnangagwa at the height of Zanu PF’s brutal tribal, factional and succession wars five years ago.
“They will say they are doing things in the name of Chiwenga and say ‘we are for Chiwenga … we want him to lead’, but Chiwenga is not naive.
“They condemned Chiwenga. They said bad things about him and some of these people were pushing for his arrest.
“And suddenly, because they hate Mnangagwa, they want to drag Chiwenga’s name to advance their personal, petty agendas.
“People (G40s) celebrated (in 2017) when they thought Mnangagwa had been pushed out and it was their time. But there is what we call destiny. There are those who are destined by God to rule Zimbabwe,” Musindo further told 3Ktv.
In the meantime, presidential spokesperson George Charamba has also said Mnangagwa will seek to serve a second term in office, and that he will not be challenged at the Zanu PF congress scheduled for October this year.
Speaking to the Daily News last week, in the light of sustained claims of fissures between Mnangagwa and Chiwenga, Charamba also emphasised that there had never been an agreement between the two men that ED would serve one term.
“There is nothing really new about this (people who want to create a rift between Mnangagwa and Chiwenga).
“I think these are characters who have been inspired by the colonial ideology of divide and rule, hoping that it may work to weaken Zanu PF.
“They have been targeting Zanu PF’s leadership to try and draw a wedge between the president and his deputy. The two are together. They have always been together,” Charamba said.
He said further that Mnangagwa was going to complete his two terms, adding that Tsenengamu and Kunaka’s antics were meant to sow seeds of disharmony and divide Zanu PF’s votes in next year’s elections.
At the height of the ruling party’s tribal, factional and succession wars, G40 members aligned themselves to Mugabe and his erratic wife Grace — while the Lacoste faction backed Mnangagwa who was then VP.
The brutal party wars were ended in dramatic fashion by the military, which rolled its tanks into Harare on 15 November 2017 — after deciding that it had had enough of Mugabe and Grace.