Following the lifting of party member suspensions by party spokesperson Christopher Mutsvangwa, Justice Mayor Wadyajena—a former lawmaker from Gokwe-Nembudziya and ally of President Emmerson Mnangagwa—has managed to withstand yet another cut from the Zanu PF.
Mutsvangwa said that a regular Politburo directive had been broken by suspending a number of party members, including Wadyajena, during the previous few months.
Wadyejena was suspended last month for allegedly sabotaging the party’s candidates prior to the August elections, along with Florence Rwodzi and a few other top officials in the Midlands.
Suspension threats were also made against a number of other party members, including former province chairman Larry Mavhima and Jorum Gumbo, the Special Advisor to the President in charge of overseeing the implementation of government programmes, for allegedly neglecting to participate in party campaigns.
More than 360 party members also had to endure the chop.
The Godwills Masimirembwa provincial executive also suspended a number of party members in Harare province for a variety of offences, including as failing to rally support for First Lady Auxilia Mnangagwa’s gathering at the Mbare Netball Complex.
Speaking at a news conference in Harare, Mutsvangwa said that the suspensions were void since they went beyond the politburo’s prohibition order on the action.
He asserted that his party was a well-organized organisation that complies with party directives and he advised party members to cease the retaliatory suspensions.
Zanu PF, Mutsvangwa said, was different from the Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) which he said its chaotic conduct has stampeded the country into elections following the recall of legislators and councillors by an impostor, Sebenzo Tshabangu.
“These suspensions are null. People must wait for a directive from the politburo, the standing order from the politburo is that there will not be a suspension,” Mutsvangwa told journalists in Harare yesterday.
“What we don’t want in the party is a replica of the chaos that is happening in the opposition. We are an organised party, and we rely on central orders from the President through the politburo.”
He added: “My sincere advice to party members is to desist from such action until they get direction from the politburo. We don’t want chaos. We don’t want petty settling of scores at the party, we celebrate our victory. We don’t have a reason for anyone to poke our fingers in other people’s noses.”
Wadyejena lost to Flora Buka during the primaries that were allegedly rigged by the Forever Association of Zimbabwe, a shadowy outfit run by the central intelligence organisation.
Buka, however, struggled to get numbers at her rallies, with the party provincial executive accusing Wadyajena of sabotaging her campaigns.
Party supporters from the constituency insisted they still wanted Wadyajena as their candidate.
Several meetings to try to unite party candidates with those who lost during primaries were held but no common ground was reached.
A disciplinary hearing for Wadyajena was abandoned after party members failed to show up.
Wadyejena was, however, later suspended on charges of sabotaging Buka.
Several other aspiring MPs who lost during the primaries were also suspended, together with their campaign team members, a situation that could have caused the biggest carnage in Mnangagwa’s backyard.
This is not the first time Wadyajena, the proverbial cat, has been threatened with suspension.
Last year, the provincial executive also proposed his suspension after he was arrested on allegations of corruption involving US$ 5 million money from the Cotton Company ay of Zimbabwe.
The proposal failed to find takers after it emerged party bigwigs were backing him.
He narrowly survived the chop in 2015 when he was arrested in Victoria Falls on allegations of insulting former First Lady Grace Mugabe.
His survival in the party was later secured by the coup on Mugabe in November 2017, which ushered in Mnangagwa, his political godfather.
