Harare | Justice Mayor Wadyajena, a former legislator from Gokwe-Nembudziya and a supporter of President Emmerson Mnangagwa, has withstood another cut by the Zanu PF after party spokesperson Christopher Mutsvangwa overturned party member suspensions.
Mutsvangwa said that the suspension of a number of party members, including Wadyajena, over the previous few months was against a permanent Politburo directive.
Along with Florence Rwodzi and a few other Midlands senior executives, Wadyejena was banned last month for allegedly sabotaging the party’s candidates prior to the August elections.
Several other party members, including former provincial chairman Larry Mavhima and Jorum Gumbo, the Special Advisor to the President responsible for Monitoring the Implementation of Government Programmes were also threatened with suspension for allegedly failing to campaign for the party.
Over 360 party supporters also faced the chop.
Several party members were also suspended in Harare province by the Godwills Masimirembwa provincial executive for various reasons, including failure to mobilise supporters for First Lady Auxilia Mnangagwa’s meeting held at the Mbare Netball Complex.
Addressing a press conference in Harare, Mutsvangwa said the suspensions were null because they violated a prohibition order on the action imposed by the politburo.
He warned party members to stop the vindictive suspensions, claiming his party was an organised structure that respects party orders.
Mutsvangwa distinguished Zanu PF from the Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC), claiming that the latter’s disorderly behaviour had forced the nation into elections after an impostor named Sebenzo Tshabangu had recalled lawmakers and council members.
“These are void suspensions. Mutsvangwa told reporters in Harare yesterday that people should wait for an instruction from the Politburo, which is on the record as saying there won’t be a suspension.
“A duplicate of the disarray occurring in the opposition is what we do not want within the party. We are a structured party that takes its directives centrally from the President via the Politburo.
He added: “My sincere advice to party members is to desist from such action until they get direction from the politburo. We don’t want chaos. We don’t want petty settling of scores at the party, we celebrate our victory. We don’t have a reason for anyone to poke our fingers in other people’s noses.”
Wadyejena lost to Flora Buka during the primaries that were allegedly rigged by the Forever Association of Zimbabwe, a shadowy outfit run by the central intelligence organisation.
Buka, however, struggled to get numbers at her rallies, with the party provincial executive accusing Wadyajena of sabotaging her campaigns.
Party supporters from the constituency insisted they still wanted Wadyajena as their candidate.
Several meetings to try to unite party candidates with those who lost during primaries were held but no common ground was reached.
A disciplinary hearing for Wadyajena was abandoned after party members failed to show up.
Subsequently, Wadyejena was suspended due to allegations of undermining Buka.
Along with their campaign team members, a number of other aspirant MPs who failed in the primary were also suspended, which might have resulted in the greatest destruction in Mnangagwa’s home district.
Wadyajena, the figurative cat, has already been threatened with suspension.
The provincial executive had also suggested his suspension the previous year, following his arrest on charges of embezzlement involving US$ 5 million from the Cotton Company, a Zimbabwean company.
As word spread that influential party figures were supporting him, the plan was met with resistance.
When he was arrested in Victoria Falls in 2015 on suspicion of insulting former First Lady Grace Mugabe, he barely avoided the chop.
Later, the November 2017 coup that overthrew Mugabe and installed his political godfather, Mnangagwa, guaranteed his survival inside the party.
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