VICE-PRESIDENT Constantino Chiwenga yesterday abandoned a clean-up campaign scheduled for Mvurwi after only a handful of party officials turned up, leading to a bitter meeting of the Zanu PF provincial officials.<\/p>\n
Chiwenga then assigned minister of Agriculture Perrance Shiri to stand in for him after only a few Members of Parliament, councillors, Zanu PF officials and government workers turned up for the clean-up exercise.<\/p>\n
To explain Chiwenga\u2019s absence, Shiri told the officials gathered at Mvurwi High School that Chiwenga had returned to Harare to attend to a \u201cspecial assignment\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cVice-President was called back to Harare on his way here and he has assigned me to deliver his speech on his behalf,\u201d Shiri said.<\/p>\n
But the provincial leadership called for an emergency Provincial Coordinating Committee (PCC) meeting at Umvukwes Primary School soon after Shiri\u2019s address to iron out squabbles between the province\u2019s Zanu PF MPs and war veterans.<\/p>\n
The meeting was so tense that security details and media were ordered out as tempers flared. But that was not before a NewsDay staffer was forced by Zanu PF chairperson for Mashonaland Central province Kazembe Kazembe to stand before the PCC and explain a story published by the newspaper about the tiff between MPs and war veterans in the province which was affecting the party\u2019s mobilisation efforts.<\/p>\n
The story alleged a rift between the liberation war fighters and MPs in the area who they accused of abusing food donated to the province to advance personal interests.<\/p>\n
Provincial war veterans leader Sam Parirenyatwa and his executive wrere also chucked out of the meeting.<\/p>\n
\u201cSince we are all here, l thought it is wise to meet and address issues coming from the newspaper that we are sabotaging the President, me included,\u201d Kazembe said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe should not be emotional about it; let us talk about the issue. I am being advised that the reporter who covered this story is in here. What is happening to our security, Simbarashe Sithole please stand up and tell us if your story is true because you are here by default,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
The disgruntled war veterans accuse Kazembe of failing to mobilise crowds for the party\u2019s rallies.<\/p>\n
In 2018, Mnangagwa aborted a rally in Bindura after only a handful of people attended, while his wife had a run-in with party executives after a few people turned up for her family fun day at Chipadze Stadium in October last year.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is clear Kazembe is failing to mobilise people, hence the presidium is snubbing us now and again due to poor attendance, people do not want the truth to be told that is why they are chasing us away from their PCC meeting,\u201d one veteran said.<\/p>\n
But the MPs hit back, charging that the war veterans were misguided and accused them instead of sabotaging Mnangagwa.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe gave the President all the seats and what the war veterans are doing is very wrong to accuse us of sabotaging the President. This rift will not end, we will continue fighting until we die,\u201d said a legislator who refused to be named.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
VICE-PRESIDENT Constantino Chiwenga yesterday abandoned a clean-up campaign scheduled for Mvurwi after only a handful of party officials turned up, leading to a bitter meeting of the Zanu PF provincial officials. Chiwenga then assigned minister of Agriculture Perrance Shiri to stand in for him after only a few Members of Parliament, councillors, Zanu PF officials […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":18062,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,12],"tags":[104,34],"class_list":["post-20425","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-policy","tag-chiwenga","tag-emmerson-mnangagwa"],"yoast_head":"\n