'President Mnangagwa will be Zanu PF's Waterloo'

'President Mnangagwa will be Zanu PF's Waterloo'

MNANGAGWA

• DUMISANI ZIFA NDLOVU: 'Mnangagwa has Matabele blood on his hands'

• Mnangagwa, Dabengwa clash over Mat massacres

• Mugabe faces class lawsuit over massacres

• Honour of journalist who first exposed Mat killings

• Black murder, white murder

By Staff Reporter

ZANU PF was last night warned that nominating Emmerson Mnangagwa as President Robert Mugabe's successor could be the party's Waterloo.

The warnings come just days before the Zanu PF annual congress early next month at which political analysts say Mnangagwa will succeed Mugabe, with his two deputies being John Nkomo and Didymus Mutasa.

Mnangagwa is disliked with passion in south-western Zimbabwe where he is seen as the architect of a brutal massacre of the minority Ndebele people which claimed over 20 000 lives soon after Independence from Britain in 1980.

Opposition Zapu leader Paul Siwela described Mnangagwa, Zanu PF's secretary for administration and Speaker of Parliament as someone "who is so fond of killing" and "ill qualified to lead".

Siwela told SW Radio Africa's Newsreel last night: "Mnangagwa is ill qualified to be a national leader. He is the wrong person, going for the wrong position at the wrong time. The man has so much blood on his hands."

Zimbabwe's banned paper, The Daily News, now publishing online, said it had been told that "it is now a fait accompli that Emmerson Mnangagwa will be appointed the successor to President Robert Mugabe" at the Zanu PF Congress.

The paper said current vice-president, Joseph Msika was expected to step down, although it was not clear whether this will be of his own accord or by coercion.

"The other key factor to emerge is that Mugabe will have done a splendid tribal balancing act. Mugabe is a Zezuru and there has been talk that the next party and government leader should either be a Karanga, Ndebele or Manyika, the other major tribes in the country," The Daily News said.

"The Karangas are the biggest tribal group and Mnangagwa, who enjoyed unbridled support of the late vice-president Simon Muzenda, himself a Karanga, is also from Masvingo province.

"Didymus Mutasa will represent the Manyikas who have been agitating for long to have their fingers in the royal pie after Mugabe. John Nkomo, a distant relative of President Mugabe will represent the Ndebeles after their party, Zapu was swallowed in the December 1987 Unity Accord between Zanu PF and Zapu."

The speculation about Mnangagwa replacing Mugabe was fuelled by an interview with a weekly newspaper last week in which he tried to wiggle himself free of blame over his involvement in the Matabeleland massacres. Analysts say he is preparing the ground for take-over and is keen to shake-off the ghost of Matabeleland.

“Politically, if the Zapu leadership had accepted that they had lost the elections and that the number of seats they had were equal to their popularity and convey(ed) that message to their forces, then it could not have happened. It was necessary for them to have accepted democratic decisions,” the Zanu PF secretary for administration was quoted as having said.

Mnangagwa's utterances invited the ire of former PF-Zapu stalwart Dumiso Dabengwa who described them as unhelpful, and generally rubbished Mnangagwa's take on the situation.

Siwela said it would be naïve for Mnangagwa to try and distance himself from the Matabeleland massacres because he was the very person that supplied the intelligence that triggered the atrocities.

An analyst said last night: "If Mnangagwa goes on to lead Zanu PF, then that will be manna from heaven for the opposition. Mnangagwa is exposed on all fronts, has so many enemies and is just the perfect villain. He will take Zanu PF down with him."
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