Oppah Muchinguri on knife edge

First lady Grace Mugabe, ZANU PF women’s league Secretary Oppah Muchinguri and president of senate Edna Madzongwe Picture: WATSON UFUMELI.

ZANU-PF Women’s League boss Oppah Muchinguri will have to bank on President Robert Mugabe’s benevolence to survive the intriguing events unfolding in the ruling party after she was stampeded by crafty members of the wing into relinquishing her position at congress in order to make way for the First Lady, Grace Mugabe.

A former aid to the late military commander Josiah Tongogara, Muchinguri found herself completely outwitted by rivals and had to give in to pressure in order to save face by offering to step aside at the Women’s League congress due this August, leaving the secretary for women’s affairs to ponder her next move. Muchinguri’s position got untenable after it became clear that the majority of the league’s membership were not for her continued leadership of the organ.

While the mere mention of President Robert Mugabe’s wife’s name in the evolving power dynamics within ZANU-PF has opened more possibilities for dark horses gunning for top positions ahead of the party’s elective congress in December, it has thrown doubts into Muchinguri’s political future. As the party’s secretary for women’s affairs, Muchinguri was guaranteed of a position in the ZANU-PF Politburo, the most influential organ of the revolutionary party.

In terms of rank, she is currently the 16th most senior member of the party with the only other woman senior to her being Vice President Joice Mujuru. While Muchinguri, ensconced in that powerful position, would combine looks, luck and political acuity to make herself a formidable force in ZANU-PF, her unceremonious exit from the league’s leadership renders her vulnerable, politically.

Monica Mutsvangwa, the league’s spokesperson, could not commit to what would become of her boss, who also happens to be her close friend. Mutsvangwa could only say Muchinguri’s fate would be addressed in due course. “Let us do one step at a time,” she said. Earlier, Mutsvangwa had acknowledged that the nomination of Amai Mugabe had been done to quell factionalism in the Women’s League.

“It is important that we walk through with the mother of the nation which is critical especially at a time like this when we are fighting among ourselves because of factions,” she said. Contacted for comment, Muchinguri refused to talk saying she was in a Politburo meeting. ZANU-PF insiders said Muchinguri may have to go for broke to challenge for any of the top positions in the party ahead of congress.

Considering that she no longer has the leverage she could have used as a bargaining chip to campaign for a higher position, sources see Muchinguri’s future now solely dependent on President Mugabe’s goodwill. In 2008, President Mugabe had to lift Muchinguri from a pool of ZANU-PF candidates who had lost elections of that year by appointing her provincial governor for Manicaland.

The upward mobility to result from the filling up of the second vice presidency left vacant following the death of John Nkomo in January last year could create an opportunity for Muchinguri to rise up the ladder regardless. With Didymus Mutasa reportedly eyeing the national chairmanship in the event that Simon Khaya-Moyo, the incumbent, becomes second vice president, talk has it that Muchinguri could be looking up to President Mugabe to reward her with the secretary for administration position for making way for his wife in the Women’s League.

This scenario is, however, still fraught with complications stemming from the 1987 Unity Accord signed between ZANU-PF and PF-ZAPU to end the disturbances that rocked the Midlands and Matabeleland provinces in the formative years of Zimbabwe’s independence. Former PF-ZAPU cadres are adamant that in addition to the post of second vice president, the position of national chairman also belongs to them. While this would have the effect of locking Mutasa out of the equation, this scenario would also limit Muchinguri’s options.

A distant prospect is that she might seek to challenge either Mujuru or Mutasa for the first vice presidency and secretary for administration’s post respectively. But other than driving a point home, this could be a miscalculation on her part because ZANU-PF is not known for departing from a hierarchical approach that makes it abominable for juniors to challenge their elders. Also, Mujuru is said to have struck a chord with Mutasa and Khaya-Moyo to campaign as one bloc, which makes it difficult for anyone to upset the alliance unless they have got President Mugabe’s backing.

Another possibility is that Muchinguri might fill up one of the positions left vacant following the deaths of David Karimanzira and Stanley Mudenge in March 2011 and October 2012 respectively. Karimanzira was the party’s secretary for finance while Mudenge was the secretary for external affairs. But judging from the events leading up to the Amai Mugabe’s birthday celebrations last Friday at which the Women’s League membership pleaded with the First Lady to take up the wing’s chairmanship, it would appear that it’s back to the drawing board for Muchinguri.

What is not helping matters are revelations that the Women’s League boss did not relinquish the top position voluntarily as may have been suggested. Information gathered by the Financial Gazette suggests that Muchinguri only threw her weight behind the First Lady as a way of salvaging her own political career which was under threat after she discovered a secret plot to oust her.

The Financial Gazette can exclusively reveal that underground moves to oust Muchinguri were initially hatched by a clique of top women in ZANU-PF from Mashonaland West province. The idea found support from cadres loyal to Vice President Mujuru’s faction, who saw this as an opportunity to weaken Muchinguri whom they believe to belong to Emmerson Mnangagwa’s camp.

Mujuru and Mnangagwa, although they deny it, are rumored to be heading factions that are gunning to succeed President Mugabe in the event that he retires from active politics. It is said that the plan to rope in the First Lady was ironically engineered by Mashonaland West provincial chairman, Temba Mliswa, who then tasked Sarah Mahoka, Hurungwe East Member of Parliament and Edna Madzongwe, the Senate President, to run with it.

While it is not clear where Mliswa got the idea or instruction from, the uncertainty created by the sudden turn of events tends to suggest that neither of the two factions in ZANU-PF had seen this coming. But as the support for the First Lady caught on, both factions could not afford to stand in her way for fear of reprisals.

Muchinguri was also left with no other option but to hijack the project midstream in order to limit the damage to her own prospects.
She quickly seized the opportunity to hastily arrange for the Women’s League leadership from across the country to gather under the pretext of celebrating the First Lady’s birthday.  Amai Mugabe turned 49 recently. An estimated 3 000 delegates thronged her orphanage in Mazowe for the function which was arranged in two days.

At the First Lady’s birthday celebrations, Muchinguri came out in support of the idea with gusto although sources revealed that her team decided that they could not fight the First Lady since she had already secured the backing of the Women’s League provincial chairpersons. “If you think Muchinguri is giving up the post willingly, you are wrong. Muchinguri actually hijacked a train that was already moving,” said a source.

“They realised that there was no point in trying to block the ascendancy of the First Lady and decided that the best thing was to hijack the project altogether so that it appears it was their original plan,” said the source. In an apparent reference to her situation, at the belated birthday celebrations Muchinguri said the internal fights over positions in the party had seen some people being targets of elimination by factional rivals. – Maggie Mzumara & Andrew Kunambura

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