ZANU PF RESPONDS TO CONSTANTINE CHIWENGA

HARARE: Information Minister Simon Khaya Moyo has issued a statement using a Zanu PF letterhead saying President Mugabe’s ruling party will not succumb to threats and pressure from the army in Zimbabwe.

This follows a dramatic two days in which first Zimbabwe Defence Forces commander Constantine Chiwenga warned of military intervention if Zanu PF kept purging liberation war fighters.

 Chiwenga then went a step further and mobilised army tanks  and armed soldiers on Tuesday in what has been described by observers as not only a coup threat but a bold statement to challenge President Mugabe’s leadership.
See Full Statement Below:

Consistent with the guiding principle of the National Liberation Struggle, the ruling Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU PF) reaffirms the primacy of politics over the gun. It is against an understanding of this abiding principle that the statement issued by General Constantino Chiwenga purporting to speak on behalf of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces (ZDF) was not only surprising but was an outrageous vitiation of professional soldiership and his wartime record as a high-ranking freedom tighter entrusted with Command responsibilities in a free and democratic Zimbabwe. 

Clearly calculated to disturb national peace and stability, the said statement by General Constantino Chiwcnga which was not signed, and which did not represent the rest of the Command Element, suggests treasonable conduct on his part as this was meant to incite insurrection and violent challenge to the Constitutional Order. indeed, this is what happens when the gun seeks to overreach by dictating to politics and norms of Constitutionality. 

As the Party running the democratically elected Government of Zimbabwe, ZANU PF will never succumb to any threats, least of all, those deriving from conduct that is inconsistent with the tenets of democracy and Constitutionalism. 

Not too far back, the President and First Secretary of ZANU PF Cde R.G. Mugabe who is also Commander-in-Chief of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces (ZDF) reminded members of the Uniformed Forces of their subordinate place and role viz-a-viz; the Political Authority of the Land. By yesterday’s reprehensible conduct, it would appear that this wise counsel not only went unheeded but was flagrantly flouted in deference to factional politics and personal ambitions. Such conduct stands unreservedly condemned not only in the Party but also in our Southern African Region and the entire African Continent where subversion of Constitutional Authority is frowned upon and regarded as an absolute anathema.

Chiwenga deployed troops following his coup threats

More details follow…