Executive Summary
AS the factional winds continue to rage in the ruling Zanu-PF party, it is becoming apparent
that the centre can no longer hold, a development which has seen the party stumbling into
uncharted territory.
The humiliating water cannon attacks by police on war veterans in February who, since
Independence, had always been a revered and somewhat untouchable population for ZanuPF, signals a significant and unprecedented departure from ‘politics as usual’ for the
ruling party. Politics as usual for Zanu-PF - particularly since the turn of the millennium
when the revolutionary party found itself on the defensive facing stiff competition from the
opposition following the formation in 1999 of the then formidable Movement for Democratic
Change (MDC) – meant relying heavily on vanguards of the revolution and gains of the
protracted Chimurenga liberation struggle. These vanguards in the form of war veterans, the
youths and chiefs, and oftentimes alongside state agents, have election after election fought
fearlessly, ruthlessly and unfairly any opposition elements to the indomitable elevation of
Zanu-PF.
In essence these vanguards have been the “legs” that the ruling party has stood on, and to
what it owes much of its intimidation, manipulation, suppression and altogether management
of dissenting voices to ensure controversial landslide victories at election times. Now with
the war veteran wing weakened by doubt, mistrust and betrayal following their attacks by
police on some of their numbers; coupled with some random verbal dress downs by the
President Robert Mugabe and his wife, First Lady Grace Mugabe; and buttressed by internal
bickering of their own amongst the war veterans themselves, against a background of
factional fights, this leg has been stumped. And should it walk on from here, would do so
limpingly never as sturdily as before. Never before had the nation seen the revered war
veteran mobilise angrily to appear before the President, but this is exactly what our February
report shows as they boarded buses in their numbers headed for the capital city, the supreme
seat of political power.
As if that is not enough, more uncharted territory is the tearing of the party in three distinct
groupings – the ‘gamatox’ who sympathised with and followed former vice president
Joice Mujuru into her own party, the Zimbabwe People First (ZimPF); Generation 40
(‘G40’) who are believed to be backing the First Lady as a possible successor to her
husband at the exclusion of Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa, who himself is backed by
‘Team Lacoste', the third faction. While ‘gamatox’ completely broke away from ZanuPF to form their own political outfit; G40 and Team Lacoste are fiercely battling out within
the belly of the party, thereby significantly upsetting the very anatomy of the revolutionary
party. Incidences reported for February depict the various, multi-layered and multi-factioned
conflict which found expression in intra- and inter-party conflict.
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