In characteristic Zanu PF fashion, Defence Minister and veteran politician, Oppah Muchinguri last Sunday showered Vice President Retired-General Constantino Chiwenga with praises, glowingly praising the former army commander for the leading role he played in the November 2017 coup which resulted in the dramatic ouster of Zimbabwe’s late long-ruling dictator, Robert Mugabe.
zim coup
Muchinguri, who is also the ruling party’s national chairperson, told Zanu PF supporters who thronged the pre-March 26 Manicaland Star Rally over the weekend that the ‘well-decorated soldier’ VP Chiwenga deserves nationwide praises for championing the late Mugabe’s removal after realising that the revolutionary party had been hijacked by intraparty malcontents taking advantage of Mugabe’s age advancement.
Chiwenga, she said, rightfully deserves due credit for his role in the “restoration of the country’s political legacy”.
Despite the global condemnation typifying the Chiwenga-led military coup that resulted in the ascendancy of current leader Emmerson Mnangagwa to the top political post on the land, Zimbabwe authorities have euphemistically branded the November 2017 events as ‘Operation Restore Legacy’.
In a bootlicking stunt that reminds many of ex-Cabinet Minister Webster Shamu’s likening of the late Mugabe to the Cremora powdered milk, the Defence Minister said of the deputy president:
“Dr Chiwenga is a well decorated soldier and a fighter of the liberation struggle. That is why it was seen fit to appoint him as the commander of the defense forces it’s because of his great works he has done for our country. But there was a time where we found out that the political virtues and legacies were now being misplaced and he found it fit to restore this legacy. We know that the old man (Mugabe) was now old and some people around were now taking advantage of his old age to harbor certain personal hidden agendas”.
She also added that:
“Some people were now thinking that they were now ruling the country (and that) this is why you saw Cde Chiwenga rising up and launched operation restore legacy that then brought the birth of the second republic led by President Mnangagwa”.
Further quipped Muchinguri-Kashiri:
“We saw that Cde Chiwenga had done a great job and that is why he was told to retire from his job and move closer to work with us. It was seen fit to appoint him as the Vice President so that he gives more energy in restoring the country’s legacy”.
When the late Mugabe, who ruled the landlocked southern African nation of 15 million people with an iron fist for 37 years fell from power, the ruling party was divided between the Team Lacoste camp which backed the incumbent’s succession ambitions and the vanquished G40 cabal fronted by the late dictator’s widow, Grace.
Mugabe’s resignation instantly halted an impeachment hearing that was underway in Hoiuse of Assembly.
Zwnews
