HARARE
–
Zanu
PF
has
blocked
an
attempt
by
its
Manicaland
provincial
leadership
to
co-opt
President
Emmerson
Mnangagwa’s
adviser
Paul
Tungwarara
into
the
party’s
central
committee,
ruling
that
the
move
violated
party
procedures
and
warning
against
creeping
vote
buying.
The
intervention
came
in
a
December
11
letter
from
National
Political
Commissar
Munyaradzi
Machacha
to
provincial
chairman
Tawanda
Mukodza,
in
which
he
nullified
Tungwarara’s
elevation
by
the
Manicaland
Provincial
Coordinating
Committee
(PCC)
during
its
December
7
meeting.
Machacha
said
the
PCC
had
disregarded
guidelines
issued
by
the
party’s
legal
affairs
department,
which
require
that
any
replacement
for
a
vacant
central
committee
post
must
come
from
the
same
administrative
district
as
the
departing
member.
Tungwarara
had
been
selected
to
fill
a
vacancy
left
by
Dorothy
Mabika,
who
hailed
from
Chipinge.
“The
said
co-option
has
been
nullified
with
immediate
effect,”
Machacha
wrote,
stressing
that
the
correct
nominee
“must
originate
from
Chipinge
administrative
district”
in
line
with
Zanu
PF’s
proportional
representation
rules
across
districts.
He
also
issued
a
pointed
warning
against
any
acts
of
inducement,
saying
“issuance
of
money,
goods
or
services”
by
aspirants
would
be
treated
as
vote
buying
and
lead
to
automatic
disqualification.
Tungwarara,
who
has
amassed
significant
wealth
through
opaque
state
contracts,
was
accused
by
rivals
of
distributing
cash
and
buying
food
for
PCC
delegates
who
backed
his
attempted
co-option.
Manicaland
has
been
instructed
to
restart
the
process,
this
time
adhering
strictly
to
the
legal
affairs
department
circular.
Once
a
peripheral
political
figure,
Tungwarara
has
rapidly
risen
within
Zanu
PF
circles
through
a
series
of
high-profile
schemes
run
in
the
name
of
Mnangagwa
—
including
the
Presidential
Borehole
Scheme,
the
Presidential
Stands
for
Veterans
of
the
Liberation
Struggle
Programme,
the
Presidential
War
Veterans
Fund
and
the
Presidential
Solar
Programme.
His
nationwide
cash
giveaways
and
lavish
sponsorship
of
party
activities
have
unsettled
some
within
Zanu
PF,
who
privately
warn
that
money
is
increasingly
tilting
internal
power
dynamics.
With
some
touting
him
as
a
future
presidential
candidate,
Tungwarara
appears
in
a
hurry
to
scale
up
Zanu
PF’s
political
ladder,
and
a
place
in
the
300-member
central
committee
is
a
key
step.