EXILED former Cabinet Minister Walter Mzembi has mocked Zanu PF’s electoral triumph and described President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s appointment of his family and friends into Cabinet as a poor attempt at regenerating the ruling party’s waning fortunes.
Mzembi, who has been in South Africa since a 2017 coup that toppled late President Robert Mugabe, questioned how Zanu PF having the support of Zimbabwe’s military and influence of already being in power had lost 103 of the country’s 210 constituencies.
The 103 were won by Nelson Chamisa’s year-old Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC), Zanu PF’s main challenger at Zimbabwe’s August 23 polls.
Chamisa managed 44% of the vote against Mnangagwa’s 52.6%.
He maintains he was rigged and continues to court regional and international support for a fresh plebiscite.
Posting on X, Mzembi blamed Mnangagwa’s failure to regenerate the revolutionary party for the loss.
“A 59-year-old revolutionary movement armed with party-state conflation, power of incumbency, is military assisted, loses 103 seats to a one-year-old!” said Mzembi.
“Then you say you are still strong. That is a lie, you are a story of the past because you refused regeneration.”
Despite a number of young Turks on Zanu PF’s list of legislators, the executive has maintained an aged leadership headed by 81-year-old Mnangagwa, his deputy and returnee Kembo Mohadi at 73 years and Constantino Chiwenga at a modest 67.
Mzembi, a one-time favourite in Mugabe’s Cabinet had been rooting for the return of long-time ally Saviour Kasukuwere, who like him has been in exile.
Both fled Zimbabwe at the height of Mnangagwa’s coup alongside other Ministers such as Jonathan Moyo who had been in Zanu PF’s losing Generation 40 (G40) faction when rival Lacoste toppled Mugabe.
His support for Kasukuwere had been based on regeneration, a factor he said was not evident in Mnangagwa’s ‘new’ Cabinet announced a week ago.
Mnangagwa appointed his son and nephew, some relatives and friends into Zimbabwe’s cabinet, irking various sections of Zimbabwe’s society and some of his colleagues within Zanu PF who felt he could have done better.
“Now you bring your children and you think they resemble regeneration – NADA (no)!” added Mzembi.