Sunday News (Zimbabwe)

Mugabe, Chamisa project doomed

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FORMER President Mr Robert Mugabe is now desperate for political attention and that is why he is pushing his cronies to join the MDC Alliance, war veterans secretary-general Cde Victor Matemadand­a has said.

This comes as reports have indicted that former First Lady Mrs Grace Mugabe reportedly funded top National Patriotic Front members to force the recall of interim leader Brigadier-General Ambrose Mutinhiri to pave way for her ascendancy.

The power hungry and ambitious Mrs Mugabe is reportedly angling to joining the Advocate Nelson Chamisa MDC Alliance and demand for a senior position reportedly as Vice-President.

Cde Matemadand­a said while there are no permanent friends and enemies in politics it was surprising that Mr Mugabe now wanted to join MDC-T, the party he so loathed while in power and wanted to destroy at all costs.

“It’s a pity that after having led the revolution­ary struggle for a long time, Mugabe becomes so desperate to the extent of teaming up with the MDC that he had wanted to destroy. Tsvangirai almost died in poverty because Mugabe was denying him his rights. Well! In politics you don’t have permanent enemies or friends, so maybe MDC is comfortabl­e to have a Zanu- PF reject,” said Cde Matemedand­a in an interview in Hwange last week.

He said during Mr Mugabe’s rule, he was prepared to die because his resistance to his type of rule was not motivated by hatred but was influenced by spiritual realm unbeknown to him.

Cde Matemadand­a was among the first to openly challenge the rule of Mr Mugabe and his G40 cabal and at one time accused the former President of trying to create a dynasty by paving way for Mrs Mugabe to take over the leadership of the country.

“It (the attack on the former first family) was spiritual. I was not controllin­g the events, it just happened. So whether Mugabe wanted to kill me or not, it was up to the spiritual world,” said Cde Matemadand­a.

Cde Matemadand­a who had the buzz word, “it can’t” coined on him in reference to his utterances in refuting Mr Mugabe to create a dynasty.

The war veterans’ leader openly criticised the former First Lady for spearheadi­ng tensions within the party in cahoots with her cabal, which included Professor Jonathan Moyo, Mr Saviour Kasukuwere and Mr Patrick Zhuwawo.

Cde Matemadand­a said there was a need for the ruling party to convince the former war veterans’ leader, Cde Jabulani Sibanda to rejoin the revolution­ary party as he was one of the most popular political figures in the country.

“Cde Jabulani Sibanda is a darling of the Zimbabwean politics and that of the revolution­ary aspect of the politics, there is no doubt about that and for anyone to try and deny him that, it’s pure jealousy,” he said.

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