MASVINGO - Rampant factionalism within Zanu (PF) here has been blamed for the failure by government to implement the multi-million-dollar Mwenezi bio-energy project.The project, located at Mwenezi Ranch, should have been up and running by now but is still in limbo as party bosses in the province squabble over who should benefit from it.
According to high-level sources within the party here, Vice President John Nkomo’s recent attempts to end the feuding and get the project going had dismally failed. Nkomo visited the project in January and was ‘shocked’ to discover that work had stopped as party heavyweights jostled for supply contracts. He is then said to have gathered members of the different factions together to try and get them to work together.
A party official who attended the meeting recorded Nkomo’s outburst on his mobile phone and availed it to this correspondent. Nkomo said, “There is need for unity of purpose and oneness for this project to succeed as there are a lot of benefits for the province and country as a whole. You must be promoters of development and not stumbling blocks.”
However, sources who attended the meeting said the opposing factions traded insults and the meeting was inconclusive. Party sources said the renewed faction-fighting within Zanu (PF) in the province has been fuelled by the ascendance of Lovemore Matuke, a nephew of the late vice-president Simon Muzenda to the provincial chairmanship. Matuke is a member of a faction whose godfather is defence minister Emmerson Mnangagwa. The faction has in its ranks the province’s governor Titus Maluleke, who was recently locked up in his office by angry war veterans accusing him of abusing his office by giving farms and project funds to members of his faction.
The other faction, led by the late Eddison Zvobgo is now fronted by tourism minister Walter Mzembi, who is Zvobgo’s nephew. Other members of the vocal Zvobgo faction are central committee member Zephaniah Matchaba-Hove, former technology deputy minister and Chiredzi legislator Henry Pote and ex-governor Dzikamai Mavhaire, who was suspended from the party for two years after he called on President Robert Mugabe to step down.
Masvingo province has remained a thorn in the flesh for Mugabe. The province broke ranks with others last year to nominate Oppah Muchinguri for the party vice-presidency against Mnangagwa’s arch-enemy Solomon Mujuru’s wife Joice. The province later withdrew Muchinguri’s nomination after Mugabe stepped in to support of Mujuru.
Post published in: News