AS ZANU-PF’s internal ructions continue to escalate, suspended youth league official Godfrey Tsenengamu, pictured, has accused President Emmerson Mnangagwa of failing to live up to the promises he made before his late predecessor Robert Mugabe fell from power in late 2017.
This comes as the former liberation movement is once again battling ugly factionalism and tribalism — twin demons that almost completely destroyed the ruling party in the last few years in office of Mugabe, with his erratic wife Grace playing a starring role in the chaos then.
It also comes as the government is facing increasing pressure to end the country’s worsening economic rot, which has triggered restlessness and anger among long-suffering Zimbabweans.
Speaking to the Daily News yesterday, Tsenengamu — who is facing expulsion from Zanu-PF, after his home province of Mashonaland East called for his ouster — threw barbs at Mnangagwa for having allegedly failed to “live up to his promises”.
“I was looking at what the president wrote in November 2017 after he had been expelled. He spoke against party capture, vindictiveness … about ideas of making Zimbabwe great again … and against corruption.
“Where has he gone wrong? Maybe it is premature to judge him because he has been in power for a short period of time.
“But I am worried because he has not delivered on his vision. I am hoping that he will deliver,” Tsenengamu said.
He also said that his recent suspension from Zanu-PF, as well as that of former youth league deputy secretary Lewis Matutu, was also contrary to the promises Mnangagwa made in his 2017 speech while he was in short-lived exile in South Africa, after fleeing from Mugabe and his goons.
“In 2017, we said expulsions were wrong and this is exactly what they (Zanu-PF and the ‘new dispensation’) are doing.
“I have been suspended for a year without a hearing and now they are threatening to expel me, again with no reason.
“If you look at the letter that was written by the president when he was in exile, he spoke against corruption and blasted the former president for pursuing his family interests,” Tsenengamu added.
In November 2017, following his dramatic sacking from both the government and Zanu-PF, Mnangagwa fled to
Pretoria where he stunningly hit back at Mugabe by declaring that he would come back in two weeks to take over both the reins of the country and the ruling party.
“I remain firm and resolute against those who plunder public funds and are used by foreign countries to destabilise the party.
“These same people (ostensibly ‘criminals’ around Mugabe) are brazenly protected in public by the First Lady, thereby making a mockery of our public institutions.
