President Robert Mugabe will on Wednesday chair the Zimbabwe’s ruling party’s highest decision-making body outside of congress, the politburo. The meeting in Harare will take stock at the challenges facing Zanu–PF.
Back in the country after attending the Oceans Conference at the United Nations in New York, the veteran leader will meet his party team.
The meeting is expected to bring to the fore the uncertainty surrounding the fate of the party’s political commissar Saviour Kasukuwere.
Amid growing concerns about President Mugabe’s health the party is facing continued factional fights, one declaring allegiance to Vice-President Emmerson Mnangagwa and another known as G40 to which Kasukuwere is said to be aligned, believed to be led by Mugabe’s wife and leader of the women’s league Grace Mugabe.
Demonstrations broke out across the country a couple of months ago in which party activists demanded that Kasukuwere be relieved of his duties as political commissar. He was accused of trying to topple Mugabe and destabilising the party by forming a parallell structure.
The tension has had a negative impact forcing party leader Robert Mugabe to appoint a three-member team to investigate the allegations.
The team is expected to make its finding.
– By Ndundu Sithole
