It would be hypocrisy at its highest for Zanu (PF) to expel Mutinhiri and yet do nothing to senior leaders who prostituted themselves to the Americans. So what will Mugabe do? Will he expel all the rebels who clearly feel that he has become a liability to the party and to the country? Didymus Mutasa, is quoted in the media suggesting that those who engaged the US diplomats should be sanctioned. This issue will play right into the feisty succession debate currently engulfing the former ruling party. Zanu (PF) is a sick party and is unlikely to survive the upheaval that faces the party as it seeks to deal decisively with the ‘traitors’.
One way to deal with this would be to discredit the leaked cables as untrue and unfounded. But then Zanu (PF) Attorney General Johannes Tomana’s attempt to charge opposition politicians on the basis of evidence from the cables would automatically fall away.
Another problem for Mugabe is that up to now he has maintained the myth that it is people outside his party who were calling for his departure. He has always claimed that it is the western ‘puppets’ in the MDC who have been pushing the agenda for regime change.
But Wikileaks demonstrates without doubt that there is a growing consensus in Zanu (PF) that Mugabe has become a liability. It is also interesting that, despite their public protestations, people in Zanu (PF) want to impress the Americans. They seem to have been competing for the approval of the mighty USA. The coming weeks and months will be interesting. – GABRIEL GIDI, by email
Post published in: Letters to the Editor