Kasukuwere was the national political commissar when the late former President Robert Mugabe was toppled in a military coup in November 2017, and is reportedly launching a comeback bid.
A movement under the banner “Tyson waBantu” is taking shape amid reports the former Youth minister is angling to take Mnangagwa head-on and is enjoying the support of trained youths from the Zimbabwe National Youth Service, some youths in Zanu-PF and disgruntled ruling party officials, among others.
But the Zanu-PF national political commissar Victor Matemadanda at the weekend described Kasukuwere as a baby whose movement had no capacity to dislodge Zanu-PF.
“All of a sudden you find babies like Kasukuwere being introduced and referred to as veterans of the struggle. How can they be veterans of the struggle while only 45 years old?” Matemadanda told a Zanu-PF provincial meeting in Mashonaland West.
Kasukuwere hit back saying: “It was a tragedy that Matemadanda, a senior official in the governing party was focusing on trivia while the country was burning.”
“At least I was not a taxi driver like him while others were fighting in the liberation struggle. He must not lie to us. Just because he has an ugly face it doesn’t mean he went to war,” Kasukuwere fumed.
“He wants to use his ugly face kuvhundutsira vanhu (to scare people). He must tell people who he went to war with, who he reported to and what he did during the war. In any case, there is no need for trivia when the people are suffering like this,” the former Local Government minister said.
“We have a serious challenge on our hands. The health sector is in a crisis, people are dying and the country is on its knees. We can’t bury our heads in the sand and start focusing on issues that do not help the people.
“We need to focus on real issues on the ground and how to save the people from the crisis.”