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By Tichaona Sibanda
10 December 2009
ZANU PF has moved with speed to bar journalists from the independent media from covering their congress, which is fast degenerating into a fiasco following an open rebellion against Robert Mugabe.
On Wednesday a politburo meeting at the congress was disrupted due to a bomb threat, while disgruntled party members openly sent SMS messages and distributed documents critical of Mugabe and the party leadership.
Our Harare correspondent Simon Muchemwa, who failed to get accreditation to cover the event, told us there are ZANU PF members who want fresh nominations for the post of leadership, instead of rubber stamping Mugabe for the next 5 years.
‘We understand the politburo has ratified the names of people to sit on the presidium but we’re getting reports that delegates are advocating for the nominations to come from the floor, which might turn out to be risky for Mugabe,’ Muchemwa said.
It is believed the party’s rank-and-file members are demanding that Mugabe, and several leaders linked to him, be shown the door, while his staunch supporters want him to continue. The vicious infighting among delegates claimed its first senior scalp on Wednesday when the provincial chairman of Manicaland province, Basil Nyabadza, resigned in a huff following heated arguments over the nomination of members to the presidium.
Others suggest Nyabadza was forced to jump ship after openly defying the party leadership. Muchemwa said there is fear within party ranks that more sackings could be expected as the party conducts an internal inquiry into the turmoil tearing it apart.
He said the scale of infighting was exposed Wednesday when text messages were sent to many delegates containing a threat to ditch Mugabe at the congress.
Clearly not wanting any bad news to emerge ZANU PF has blocked journalists it can’t control from covering events. Zimbabwe Independent journalists, Faith Zaba and Wongai Zhangazha, were on Thursday also barred from covering proceedings. The news editor of the weekly paper, Constantine Chimakure, told media advocacy group MISA-Zimbabwe that their journalists were barred by security details at the Harare International Conference Centre. Chimakure said the two journalists were simply told they were not welcome at the venue of the congress.
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