THE FACTIONALISM dividing the leadership in Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe’s Zanu-PF party has spread to its lower structures, leaving the former liberation movement struggling to rally its supporters ahead of elections expected next year.
Reports from Zimbabwe claim that in recent weeks Zanu-PF, sharing power with arch rivals the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), has had to suspend district elections in five of the nine provinces after fights over vote-rigging and intimidation.
South Africa’s Mail and Guardian newspaper reported yesterday that local leaders wishing to align themselves to the two main factions vying to take control of Zanu-PF in the post-Mugabe era was the cause of the infighting.
These factions are said to be led by defence minister Emmerson Mnangagwa and vice-president Joice Mujuru, although both leaders have denied waiting in the wings for Mr Mugabe (87) to relinquish control of the party.
The octogenarian has refused to stand down or name a successor, which has left a political vacuum that ambitious Zanu-PF politicians have been manoeuvring to fill.
In Masvingo province, the police fired warning shots and engaged in running battles with supporters of the rival factions, a development only associated with rallies held by the MDC and civil society in the past.
Police spokesperson Wayne Bvudzijena said officers were forced to separate both groups at a rural school in the province where the Zanu-PF party’s district poll was taking place, to “maintain law and order”.
Walter Mzembi, the Zanu-PF MP , said indiscipline was “tearing at the core of leadership and needs to be stopped”, according to the Mail and Guardian. In Manicaland province, where the MDC took 20 of the 26 seats in the 2008 general election, attempts to reorganise Zanu-PF have stalled, with some supporters defecting to the MDC after charges of cheating and intimidation during their district party poll.
Mr Mugabe and Zanu-PF’s senior leadership has been pushing for fresh polls to end the country’s stalled powersharing arrangement for a year now, but the latest developments have cast doubts over whether the party could carry out its traditional campaigning strategies.
Zanu-PF’s rural grassroots structures have been the key to getting Mr Mugabe’s supporters to the polls in past elections. Opposition activists claim they are used to intimidate communities into voting for the former liberation movement. However, it appears loyalty to the party has been usurped by personal ambition.
