A Cold War is brewing in ZANU PF with the latest developments pointing towards an inevitable implosion if stop gap measures are not implemented to calm down the situation and allow soberness and objectivity to be revived in the once glamorous revolutionary party.
According to sources, the G40 faction, whose pillar of strength Vice President Phelekezela Mphoko is currently holidaying in the Far East together with the First Family has set the stage for a final push in eradicating its rival Lacoste faction by drafting a list of individuals it wants dismissed from their influential government posts with immediate effect.
The looming cabinet and security sector shake up will result in most if not all individuals either linked to former Vice President Joice Mujuru or the troubled Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa being shown the exit door from their lucrative appointments.
However, what is extra-ordinary with the impending G40-led clean up exercise is that even Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa himself will not be spared.
According to sources, the G40 wants to deal with the feared VP once and for all together with his close friend and ally Dr Constantine Chiwenga who is currently serving as Commander of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces.
Chiwenga is expected to be replaced by another highly decorated security Chief Air Marshall Perence Shiri who has been his rival for the military top post for quite some time.
The police has not also been spared as its head Commissioner General Augustine Chihuri well known during wartime as Cde Chocha will be sacked and replaced by one of his deputies DCG Matibili.
Chihuri will go alongside Godwin Matanga who has been accused of being a Mnangagwa ally. In the CIO, one Mudahondo will fall and will be replaced by Colonel Kembo.
CIO boss Bonyongwe, DDG Nhepera and DIA Basopo will also be dismissed according to the G40 proposal and be replaced by loyalists.
The reports indicate that one Andrew Muzonzini will take over from Bonyongwe. There will also be gnashing of teeth in the President’s Office as long serving Chief Secretary Dr Misheck Sibanda will be purged and be replaced by his deputy Colonel Katsande according to the drafted reshuffle.
Ray Ndukula will also go and will be replaced by one Farai Matamangira while Justin Mpamhanga who is Deputy Chief Secretary will also meet his waterloo according to the proposed changes.
In cabinet, sweeping changes will see Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa being replaced by Senate President Edna Madzongwe while Home Affairs Minister Ignatius Chombo will be fired and be replaced by Shadreck Chipanga.
The G40 fears Chombo can be a spoiler to its plans due to his closeness to President Mugabe and the whole royal Gushungo clan.
Jorum Gumbo who is Minister of Transport will also be removed together with his predecessor Obert Mpofu who is set to be replaced by Psychology Maziwisa as Minister of Economic Planning.
Kizito Chivamba will take over from Jason Machaya who will be shown the door for allegations of being a Mnangagwist a few months after he was spared the chop on allegations of being a Joice Mujuru ally.
In Mashonaland Central Province, fraud-accused Resident Minister Martin Dinha will be fired and Dickson Mafios will come in his place.
In Manicaland, Oppah Muchinguri will be axed from cabinet and be replaced by little known Anna Ndlovu while hard working Finance Minister Patrick Chinamasa will be dismissed and be replaced by Zimbabwe Investment Authority boss and former banker Nigel Chanakira.
Energy Minister Samuel Undenge will also be fired alongside War Veterans Minister Christopher Mutsvangwa who is being accused of mobilizing war veterans to go against the G40 cabal.
Agriculture Minister Joseph Made whom grain millers have threatened with court action for failure to processes maize import permits has also been targeted and according to the G40 plans he will be fired and be replaced by foul-mouthed Paddy Zhanda who once said President Mugabe was too old to rule.
The proposed G-40 masterminded changes have coincided with a mysterious break-in into Vice President Mnangagwa’s office, a development that may show that those who broke into the office were keen to find any piece of evidence that they could use to nail the Midlands godfather.
Sources have also claimed that the VP and his ally Constantine Chiwenga are being accused of holding private meetings in the absence of their assigned bodyguards especially soon after Mnangagwa’s inauguration in December 2014.
The break-in could have therefore been set up to try and extract any evidence that may prove any evil plans by the two war veterans that could make it easy to sake them.
Mnangagwa, a more than three time elections campaign manager for President Mugabe notably during the hotly contested 2008 runoff and the 2013 plebiscite has been the President’s most trusted body guard from during the liberation war and his blue-eyed boy favored to take over from him whenever he retires.
However, the emergence of the Generation 40 faction, that draws its strength from its closeness to First Lady Grace Mugabe has made Mnangagwa vulnerable and prone to attacks by an organized team of young turks that are using any means possible to wrestle power from the old guard.
The G40 strategy is to isolate President Mugabe from his trusted comrades after which he will be left exposed and too weak to remain in power.
It is also in their plans that should they succeed to persuade the President to willfully relinquish power before the end of his current term, Vice President Phelekezela Mphoko should take over to finish his term as President while Saviour Kasukuwere warms up to take over as President in 2018.
It is not yet established who Kasukuwere will then name as his deputy although it doesn’t need a rocket scientist to tell that American schooled and alleged CIA agent Professor Jonathan Moyo will be one of the deputies.
Should the G40 succeed in influencing President Mugabe to implement the purges that it has proposed, it would have successfully managed to destroy ZANU PF from within as earlier on noticed by former ZANU PF spokesperson Rugare Gumbo.
Media reports in the recent weeks have claimed that the G40 was confident that it will successfully process the replacement of Vice President Mnangagwa by a woman this year and nothing will stop this from happening.
As a way of persuading the First Family to act expeditiously and uncompromisingly on its demands, unconfirmed reports have intimated that the G40 kingpins have proposed joint business ventures with the royal family while VP Mphoko in his individual capacity has offered the family shares in his Choppies Supermarket chain in a move that may cause undue influence on the veteran ruler to choose his successor in line with the G40 interests.
Among those who have been mercilessly driven away from President Mugabe as the G40 escalates its campaign to take over power are former deputy President Joice Mujuru, former Intelligence Minister Didymus Mutasa, former War Veterans leader Jabulani Sibanda among others who are now in their final stages to launch a rival political outfit to be called People’s First.
(Energy Mutodi studies a Bachelor of Laws Degree at the University of Zimbabwe and a PhD in Financial Economics at the University of Cape Town. He also holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in War Studies and Geography, and a Masters Degree in Business Administration from the University of Zimbabwe. He is a member of ZANU PF).
