Mnangagwa finally speaks

Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa yesterday said Zanu-PF Women’s League secretary for finance Cde Sarah Mahoka must explain herself following utterances she made at a recent rally at the party’s headquarters.

At the rally to celebrate President Mugabe’s successful tenure as the African Union chairperson, Cde Mahoka challenged the Head of State and Government to announce if he had authorised his spokesperson Mr George Charamba to give an interview to ZiFM radio.

Turning to Cde Mnanagwa, Cde Mahoka challenged the VP to state his position insofar as the Zanu-PF succession matrix was concerned.

She went further likening VP Mnangagwa to a duck, saying he was letting people abuse his name on succession issues while he kept quiet.

Asked on his response on the challenge by Cde Mahoka yesterday, VP Mnangagwa said: “I think the best person to answer is Mahoka. She said what she said, I ignored that. If you need more information, talk to Mahoka,” he said.

Cde Mahoka’s untoward behaviour drew brickbats from the Zimbabwe Liberation War Collaborators’ Association (Ziliwaco) secretary-general Cde Jabulani Mbetu, who said if left unchecked, her actions would set a bad precedent.

“Unless she was a storm trooper, she should be dragged before a disciplinary hearing and answer for herself what she wanted to prove,” he said.

“It should not appear as if there is no more discipline in the party. The question is where did she drive that power from?”

Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans Association secretary-general Cde Victor Matemadanda said Cde Mahoka had clearly insulted and disrespected the party’s senior leader- ship.

“The party used to give political orientation and discipline tutorials to its cadres and that is how the liberation war was won,” he said.

“This has vanished and what we saw on Wednesday (last week) was a first of its kind. We do not know if that is the direction the party has taken, but surely to avoid a repeat of this, the party leadership should take action on the matter.”

Before speaking on Cde Mahoka’s behaviour, VP Mnangagwa had delivered a lecture to students attending the Joint Command and Staff Course No. 29 at the Staff College in Harare on Zimbabwe’s Constitution.

VP Mnangagwa started his presentation with a long quotation by one of the doyens of constitutionalism in the world and Chinese national Mr Xiao Yang which he delivered during a lecture in Singapore in 2003.

Mr Xiao is the Chief Justice and president of the Supreme Court of China.

Mr Xiao’s quotation reads: “The propensity of a nation, the integrity of its politics, the stability of its society, the development of its economy, the solidarity of its ethnic groups, the flourishing of its culture, and contentment and well-being of its people, all hinge upon the maintenance of law and order and the soundness of the legal system . . . the legal protection afforded by the constitution is fundamental to the economic development of a country.”

Reflecting on the security agenda in modern times, VP Mnangagwa said: “As the security services, you constitute an important component in our democratic establishment given your crucial and indispensable mandate of safeguarding the national security and interests of the State.

“With this in mind, I hope that you will acquit yourselves well in safeguarding the territorial integrity of Zimbabwe and the other Sadc member states, bearing in mind that we share similar security interests.”

VP Mnangagwa said it was important to safeguard the country’s constitutionally enshrined interests from threats of externally manufactured regime change agenda which violated the tenets of constitutional and international law.

Turning to the ongoing alignment of laws with the new Constitution, VP Mnangagwa said Government had made major strides in that regard.

He said a number of Bills would be tabled before Parliament before the end of the current session.

VP Mnangagwa said some of the Bills such as the Electoral Amendment Bill, the National Prosecuting Authority Bill and the Public Debt Management Bill were already passed into law.

“I can confirm that the alignment process is progressing well,” he said. “Our statistics indicate that 206 out of the 396 statutes in Zimbabwe require alignment to the Constitution.

“If we bear in mind the fact that a review of certain laws will lead to amendments of other laws, you will learn that a number of 154 Acts have been reviewed to date.”