FORMER Zanu-PF stalwart, Didymus Mutasa, yesterday said he would not shed tears over former Vice-President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s recent expulsion from the ruling party, describing the underfire ex-VP as the author of his current problems.
“I have got a soft heart for everybody, not only Mnangagwa but anybody who is treated unfairly. However, in this case I don’t think Mnangagwa was treated unfairly,” said Mutasa, who was unceremoniously elbowed out of Zanu-PF in 2014 alongside former Vice-President Joice Mujuru and over 100 other top officials on allegations of plotting to oust President Robert Mugabe.
Mutasa claimed that Mnangagwa engineered their demise and popped champagne when they were pushed out of the ruling party and government.
He said Mnangagwa, fired last week for allegedly undermining Mugabe, was now being forced to taste his own medicine. The former VP is currently holed up in South Africa from where he has fired salvos at Mugabe, threatening to come back soon to control all levers of power.
There are bad things that he did and they have been exposed now and the question is why they were keeping it all along because they were known even way back,” Mutasa said, urging Zimbabweans to stop the habit of electing “foolish leaders” in top leadership positions.
“The way forward I think is to realise that we must not remain as fools because I think that is how Zimbabweans have behaved all along. We have been fools and those that have been put into positions, people like Mnangagwa have behaved foolishly.
“I think Zimbabwe should wake up and we have a very good opportunity ahead of us to wake up and elect truly good leaders. You cannot continuously elect (poor) leaders at Parliament and say our Parliament will work.
“How can Parliament work with fools, when it is not properly composed with people with the correct ideology, those who truly want to work for their country? I don’t see those in Parliament having that spirit. They are going to Parliament to just be called Members of Parliament not to bring anything constructive for the country,” he said.
Zimbabwe is going for elections next year where the divided Zanu-PF will face multiple opposition coalitions. The former Cabinet minister said people must take elections seriously and put in place leaders capable of transforming the country.