HARARE – Zanu PF fired its top youth leaders on Wednesday following a meeting of the party’s Politburo, a development seen worsening divisions in the faction-riven party.
Youth League secretary Pupurai Togarepi was demoted, but will be allowed to keep his seat in the party’s Central Committee.
His deputy, Lewis Matutu, and the youth wing’s political commissar Godfrey Tsenengamu were stripped of their positions and demoted to ordinary party members. They are banned from contesting for any party position for 12 months, the party’s acting spokesman Patrick Chinamasa said.
The dramatic developments came two days after Matutu and Tsenengamu addressed a media conference in Harare, during which they demanded the arrest of controversial businessman and Zanu PF sponsor, Kudakwashe Tagwirei, for corruption.
The youths also demanded that Green Fuel founder, Billy Rautenbach, a staunch ally of President Emmerson Mnangagwa, should be stripped of his fuel blending monopoly.
Mnangagwa, speaking before the Politburo meeting, accused the youths of “misguided and misdirected activism which threatens the party’s unity, cohesion and singleness of purpose.”
“Such behaviour will never be condoned,” he vowed.
Matutu, who appeared prepared for the dramatic turn of events when he addressed reporters on Monday, was ejected midway through the Politburo meeting.
Writing on Twitter on Wednesday night, Matutu was defiant.
“Self-sacrifice is the most honourable and selfless thing you can do in your life. Better to die for something than to live for nothing,” he said in a post featuring several hashtags including #NoToCorruption, #GenerationalGood, #LetsGetWorking and #ForYouthByYouth.
Matutu and Tsenengamu held their press conference at the Media Centre in Harare, away from the party headquarters and did not wear any Zanu PF regalia.
Matutu told reporters that in the past when the Youth League published co-called “corrupt lists”, Mnangagwa had vowed to take action, including forming a Zanu PF committee to look into the allegations, but it had never met.
“We have prepared ourselves for this, whatever the consequences we don’t care, we don’t mind, but the message has been sent,” Matutu said.
Chinamasa, who faced reporters after the Politburo meeting, insisted that the action against the youths was not an endorsement of corruption.
“It’s important, of course, to say and emphasise that the party does not condone corruption,” he said. “We basically invite and encourage our general membership that if they are witnesses and have evidence of any corruption against whomsoever, to raise these issues with the relevant authorities, in this case, the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission, the Zimbabwe Republic Police and where they think its pertaining to senior party members, they should bring them to the party.
“Unfortunately, there has not been any evidence that has been brought to ZACC pertaining to any previous allegations and I’m sure that even now, we will probably find out that the claims or allegations are unsubstantiated.
“So, in the light of these developments we felt that the departure from the directive of the Politburo was an act of indiscipline that called for severe punishment. The Politburo took note of this irregular modus operandi which is alien to the party’s way of doing its business.”
In the days leading up to Wednesday’s events, ZimLive understands Togarepi clashed with Mnangagwa’s son, Emmerson Junior, who is considered an influential figure in the Youth League although he has no formal position.
A source said Togarepi called the Zanu PF leader’s son, who is allegedly getting preferential foreign currency allocations from the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, and warned him that “this whole thing with Spartan (Investments) will end soon.”
Matutu had also drawn the ire of Zanu PF’s secretary for administration Obert Mpofu, who was previously labelled as corrupt by the Youth League.
Matutu, late last month, is reported to have gone to Mpofu’s office at the Zanu PF headquarters and demanded a Toyota Land Cruiser “like all other party secretaries.”
“Mpofu told him to buy his own, and harsh words were exchanged,” a source familiar with the incident said.
Tagwirei, a powerful petroleum tycoon implicated in the plunder of more than US$3 billion through the government’s Command Agriculture scheme, has used his vast fortune to buy the loyalty of politicians. He bought Land Cruisers for all senior Zanu PF party officials deployed to the party’s headquarters after some lost their ministerial portfolios.
