ZANU PF Mashonaland women’s league members yesterday besieged the party’s provincial offices in Chinhoyi accusing their leaders of stealing broiler chicks donated to various women’s empowerment groups by First Lady Grace Mugabe.
Targeted by the placard-waving mob were women’s league acting provincial chairperson Angeline Muchemenyi and administration secretary Joice Makazhu, who stand accused of theft of day-old chicks, failing to administer the affairs of the league and taking instructions from beleaguered Zanu PF central committee member and Kadoma businessman Jimayi Muduvuri.
Muchemenyi was caught off-guard by the seemingly spontaneous demonstration as she had called the meeting at the provincial head office to discuss the on-going biometric voter registration (BVR) and the ruling party’s upcoming extraordinary December congress. The meeting was attended by senior Zanu PF Mashonaland West members from all three wings, namely main body, women’s league and youth league.
“Their action is null and void because I remain the chairwoman of the province. In fact, I was the one who called this meeting to talk about the BVR exercise and preparations for the December congress. Those calling for my ouster belong to the Lacoste faction,” she charged.
Muchemenyi accused her deputy Mary Phiri of being over-ambitious and engineering the demonstration to push her out of office. Some of the placards read: “Muduvuri is the chair of Mash
West women’s league” and “Jimayi stop funding confusion.”
However, Phiri maintained a petition had been tendered to the provincial executive which had since endorsed it, a development that could culminate in Muchemenyi’s removal from office.
Newly-appointed Mashonaland West Provincial Affairs minister Webster Shamu and provincial chairman Ephraim Chengeta both declined to comment on the event, but central committee member and Zvimba Senator Caroline Mugabe reiterated the meeting was convened to discuss the BVR exercise and the congress preparations.
She declared nothing had changed as Muchemenyi remained the women’s league boss.
