EFF rejects claims that Malema is plotting to topple Mugabe

File picture: Phill Magakoe/ANA Pictures

File picture: Phill Magakoe/ANA Pictures

Published May 9, 2017

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Johannesburg – EFF national spokesperson Mbuyiseni Ndlozi has said the accusation that party leader Julius Malema was in a deal with Zanu-PF's political commissar Saviour Kasukuwere to topple President Robert Mugabe was "laughable".

Ndlozi said the EFF and its president were not in the business of plotting against African leadership. “When we hold different views we say it in the open and will not hide behind the succession battles of others,” he said.

Many were amused in Harare on Sunday after the state-controlled Sunday Mail said Malema was in a deal with Kasukuwere to topple 93-year-old Mugabe. And that their plot was backed by a former British ambassador to South Africa, Robin Renwick.

Calling it an “unholy alliance”, the Sunday Mail says Renwick met Malema in London in 2015, after which the EFF leader apparently dumped his economic nationalisation mantra and started pursuing the ousting of President Jacob Zuma.

Kasukuwere is allegedly involved in a faction within Zanu-PF known as the G40, which appears to be opposed to Vice-President Emmerson Mnangagwa, 74, who is widely tipped to succeed Mugabe when he dies or retires.

Martin Dinha, a provincial governor, said he was “ready to prove the collusion I submitted the allegation that comrade Kasukuwere is working with Malema, because they both share the ambition to take over power from presidents Mugabe and Zuma, respectively.”

He said Kasukuwere brought Malema to Zimbabwe in 2010 and that many suspect Malema is funding the G40.

Analysts say the mainly state-controlled newspapers, such as the Sunday Mail, and the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation, which dominate the media scene in Zimbabwe, are partial towards Mnangagwa.

Renwick served as UK ambassador to South Africa in the last stages of the National Party government and had much to do with Nelson Mandela after he was released from prison.

The Sunday Mail said Renwick did much to destabilise the ANC after it was unbanned in 1990.

He was a member of the British team in Rhodesia during the ceasefire leading to elections in 1980.

It is not clear whether the so-called G40 faction wants Kasukuwere to succeed Mugabe or if it is backing first lady Grace Mugabe to take over when her husband dies, or if this faction is just trying to stop Mnangagwa inheriting the job.

Independent Foreign Service

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