ZIMBABWE — HARARE – President Robert Mugabe’s Zanu PF will next month hold its annual conference amidst growing concerns about President Robert Mugabe's continued hold on power despite his apparent policy failures and a power-sharing deal he is contemptuously undermining.

 

Analysts say no one in Zanu PF has the courage to tell Mugabe that he has
failed and should hand the baton to a successor, or to make him see sense and share power with MDC to save the country from further economic collapse.

 

They say it is unlikely that anyone will raise the issue of Mugabe's long
overdue grip on power against a background of economic and political crises, which have been Zimbabwe's key destabilising factor.

 

 

 

 

ZimDaily understands there is mounting apprehension in the divided Zanu-PF party over the power-sharing deal, with top officials coming face to face with the reality that they could lose their ill gotten wealth and their fat jobs and perks.

"It is highly unlikely that anyone in the party would tell Mugabe to go if past experience is anything to go by," said political analyst Professor Eliphas Mukonoweshuro, an opposition Movement for Democratic Change advisor.

"Mugabe runs his party with an iron fist. There is no independent policy on issues of succession. He has got total control. Zanu PF does not function as a democratic organisation but a totalitarian one."

The conference, scheduled to be held from December 10 to 14, is expected to as usual  endorse Mugabe as the leader and the power-sharing deal.

As is the norm at Zanu PF conferences, there will be routine endorsement of the party's presidium - comprising the president and his two deputies, and the party's national chairman.

 

These officials can only be subjected to vote once every four years at a national congress, which is elective.

There are simmering emotions in Zanu-PF over the power-sharing deal, with securocrats fiercely opposed to the deal. There are also jitters in the diplomatic service and the permanent secretaries, who are likely to be fired and replaced by MDC officials.

“Fireworks are expected at the conference,” said a source. “There are people who feel disempowered by this deal and they will vent their anger at the conference, which is the only platform they have to openly put their concerns to the presidium.”

However, another source said no one had the nerve to raise the issue to Mugabe. “You know what happened when Ngwena dared to accuse the old man that he had sold out.”

The conference will also make a post-mortem of the March elections, where Zanu-PF suffered its heaviest defeat since independence in 1980.

 

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