Last week the politburo took the unprecedented step of abolishing the DCC’s in a last-ditch effort to save the former ruling party from disintegrating.
Political analyst Munjonzi Mutandiri said ZANU-PF were forced to disband its district structures after realizing that figures like Defence Minister Emmerson Mnangagwa were using their resources to manipulate the DCC’s.
ZANU PF has openly admitted that some members were sowing divisions within the party. But Mutandiri said the decision by the politburo may have sounded the death knell on ZANU PF.
‘The disbandment is a clear message to those that are observing, and to those in ZANU PF, that all is not well and that there is chaos in the party. It is also an acknowledgement by the highest decision making body of the party that there is chaos.
‘The next question obviously was, how do we stop this chaos and desperate situations call for desperate measures, and one of those desperate measures was to disband the DCC’s on the basis that they’re fueling divisions,’ Mutandiri said.
A Harare based political commentator told us that the decision to disband the DCC’s was aimed at curtailing Mnangagwa’s ascendency following the disputed polls.
‘I think they want to equalise and remove the gains that he (Mnangagwa) had made. Mugabe wants to keep the succession race open because once there is a clear deputy, the deputy will want to remove him,’ the commentator said.
An MDC-T MP in Manicaland, the province worst affected by the infighting, spoke to SW Radio Africa and said: ‘ZANU PF will never recover from this’ (disbandment of DCC’s).
‘The decision to disband the DCC’s has left the party disjointed. There are those who won fairly who have been left bewildered and this will fuel more fissures in the party and the dissolution of the structures has only sped up the process of natural decay in the party,’ the MP added.
MDC-T Senator and Deputy Minister of Justice Obert Gutu said he has always argued that ZANU PF is yesterday’s party.
‘The chickens are now coming home to roost…ZANU PF has dismally failed to transform itself into a conventional political party; it has always remained a liberation movement with a top-down management style.
‘The party is basically an institution where free and robust debate is not tolerated. It is bogged down in the so-called big man syndrome. Essentially, because of these fatal defects, the demise of ZANU PF as a vibrant player in Zimbabwean politics is imminent and in fact inevitable,’ Gutu said. SW Radio Africa
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