WAR Veterans, a key power broker in Zanu PF, have amplified their
calls for the party to appoint one of their own as national commissar and for
the re-adoption of the women’s quota system in the presidium.
*Grace Mugabe (pix:Independent)
Crucially however, the ex-fighters made it
clear that President Robert Mugabe’s wife, Grace, should remain where she is up
“to 2018 and beyond”, suggesting they would not back her as party leader.
Grace heads the party’s Women’s League but is
widely thought to be angling to take over from her soon-to-be 92 husband.
The Matabeleland and Bulawayo chapters of the Zimbabwe National
Liberation War Veterans Association (ZNLWVA), in a statement this week, took
aim at Vice President Phelekezela Mphoko and party commissar Saviour
Kasukuwere.
In a resolution which they said reflected the
ZNLWVA national executive’s will, the war veterans demanded that “the political
commissariat post of the party (Zanu –PF) be held by war veteran members with
good revolutionary credentials.”
Since assuming this influential party position
Kasukuwere, who is also a local government minister, has been on a collision
course with war veterans, especially their leader Christopher Mutsvangwa.
Kasukuwere and Mutsvangwa have fallen out with
both individuals reportedly plotting the ouster of the other from their
influential and powerful positions.