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Jabulani Sibanda

Tichaona Zindoga Senior Political Writer
EVENTS in Zanu-PF over the past few weeks, which culminated in the suspension of national spokesman Rugare Gumbo and the expulsion of renegade war veterans’ leader Jabulani Sibanda, are significant in a number of ways. The most significant of course are the shocking revelations of a plot to eliminate President Mugabe by persons, linked to Vice President Joice Mujuru as the conspirators sought to do a Laurent Kabila on the veteran leader.

These revelations, thankfully, have finally thrown light on who in the revolutionary party has been bent on destroying it from within, weevil-like.
It will be critical to note that in the past few months, there had been accusations and counter-accusations of who in the party wanted to destroy it from within.

This even culminated in comic, neo-revolutionary slogans around the phenomenon.
Yet, conveniently, a number of persons linked to VP Mujuru, especially Rugare Gumbo, who has been fingered in the elimination plot, have been all over the media accusing his factional opponents of trying to destroy the revolutionary party from within.

He, at some point, even claimed that his opponents presented a security threat to the country.
This has turned out to be a complete deception.
The other word for it is inveiglement.

Many people may have brought this lie, and interestingly, it would have given the plotters time to carry out their nefarious plan — that is, including outsourcing hit men from other countries, as now has emerged.

It is clear that this plan, if it had seen the sad light of day, would have plunged this peaceful country into complete disaster not only because President Mugabe is the people’s choice and unifier, and also because such schemes naturally fall to competing interests.

It is conceivable that the conspirators would turn against each other and complicate the situation. This would have sent the country into a spiral of chaos.
Meanwhile, the vultures that have been circling this country for more than a decade would pounce.
It is for this reason that the current revelations must be treated with the seriousness they deserve.

An act of treason, borne out of carrying out an act like killing the president of the country or merely contemplating so with the plan to effect it under certain condition, is a serious crime whose perpetrators and suspects cannot be seen walking free.

It owes to this country that there be timely, decisive and resolute procedures to bring all those fingered in the plot so that the nation can afford to sleep in peace again knowing that the country and its leader are safe and conspirators are duly locked away.

It also follows that Zanu-PF be thoroughly cleansed of all elements bent on bringing treasonous mayhem to the country which must be seized with development and prosperity.
To be read with the revealed treason plot, is the background of how the same VP Mujuru camp has been linked to the opposition MDC and Mavambo.

The camp sought first to make President Mugabe lose the 2008 presidential elections by splitting his vote.
It will be remembered that during the elections that year, some politicians went around campaigning for themselves and encouraging the electorate not to vote President Mugabe.
When that failed to unseat President Mugabe, but still afforded the opposition and its leader space in Government, the same people sought to exclude President Mugabe by seeking an arrangement with the opposition.

They, thus wanted to linger longer in bed with the opposition and even sought to prevent the holding of elections last year.
When these things are read in retrospect, the extent to which this country has been exposed to chaos and treachery is magnified.

A point to make there is that the enemy within is more dangerous that the enemy without.
That truism holds true today.

In that vein one begins to see Morgan Tsvangirai and his western-sponsored MDC-T project, which has been posing a substantial danger for the past 15 years, as some kind of better devil.

Better in the sense that the people of this country were able to see it for what it is and rejected it in the elections, delivering a deathly blow on July 31, last year.
Now, how many of the ordinary folk knew the nefarious plot to kill their President?
There is utter disbelief and consternation among the people on the street.

Just how could it be, they ask?
Yet one sad day, their leader would have been taken away from them — the dagger coming from the very same people whom the President sat, walked and drank with.
It is such as betrayal, a ghastly betrayal. There is one thing that needs also to be pointed out: President Mugabe is paying the price for his love, patience and Christian virtue.

It will be remembered that he is the architect of national unity in this country, having initiated the policy of reconciliation in 1980, forgiving Rhodesians who perpetrated crimes against humanity and genocide against the blacks of this country.

He also, together with the late Father Zimbabwe Dr Joshua Nkomo, came up with the Unity Accord, which ended hostilities that had begun with dissidents linked to the deposed Rhodesian regime and apartheid South Africa.

President Mugabe was to have a “unity” or coalition government with Morgan Tsvangirai, the Western puppet whose task was to see the reversal of the gains of the revolution.
He accepted Cde Gumbo, among other flawed characters, back in the party.
Now this!

And is the person in whose favour President Mugabe’s alleged assassination would be committed none other than the one he taught and favoured with ministerial appointments since 1980, and literally gave the post of vice president of the republic on a silver platter?

There is a saying in local parlance about raising a dog on a diet of milk.
The result, this wisdom goes, is that the dog will bite you anyway on the morrow.

Yet President Mugabe does not need to personally despair — it is part of his admirable character and legacy of unity and peace.
On the other hand, those that need to get punished should be punished not necessarily because they have sinned against Robert Mugabe, but against the people of Zimbabwe that elected him and benefit from his leadership.

The forthcoming Congress of Zanu-PF is the earliest and most critical time to put the house in order.
A clean, regenerated and focused Zanu-PF free from criminally ambitious elements will enable the party to focus on the deliverable of serving the people, which is its mandate from July 31.

At any rate, people will naturally demand to see the Government at work, after the sideshow of succession politics.