By Nobleman Runyanga

Former ZANU PF Politburo member and Cabinet Minister, the self-exiled Saviour Kasukuwere’s bid to re-join Zimbabwe’s politics is failing to take off due to a number of factors, the Harare Post can reveal.

A source within Kasukuwere’s TysonWabantu project, who the publication spoke but chose anonymity for fear of reprisal, confided to this publication that the initiative was moving nowhere except sideways due mainly to Kasukuwere’s absentee leadership.

“When many of us joined, as the youth, we looked forward to him coming out in the open to lead from the front and pronounce himself clearly on his policies and the way forward but two months down the line all we hear from him is the usual feeble threat  ‘tatamba zvakwana’.

Some of us left the MDC where the party’s leadership looks after itself but when it comes to fighting government they send us on the forefront only to laugh at us and describe us as stupid when we get into hot water with the law. We were hoping for something more vibrant than both ZANU PF and MDC but we are regretting our decision to join this movement,” said the source in frustration.

Another problem bedevilling the movement is the negative baggage in the form of undesirable people who are generally disliked by Zimbabweans.

“We have people like the former ZANU PF Harare youth provincial chairman, Jim Kunaka. The guy has split the movement even before it has been formalised into a political party. Many people feel that given his dark past he is better off being a silent member but the ambitious Kunaka will have none of it. He has been very active on the TysonWabantu Harare Whatsapp group brawling with other members over his violence, extortion and alleged murders using the name of the ruling party,” the source said.

The various movement provincial Whatsapp groups - the sole meaningful mode of recruitment and engagement with members and would-be members - have witnessed a mass exodus of people owing to incessant posting of offensive material such as pornography and mocking stickers by some in the groups,” the source said.

The source indicated that this had negatively affected the movement’s New Year resolution to recruit a total of 1 million members in the first 90 days of 2020.

While the movement had printed some publicity T-shirts carrying Kasukuwere’s image the few followers he garnered remain concerned that he is still to publicly state the way forward for the movement.

“We were excited when he stated that he would challenge (President Emmerson) Mnangagwa during the 2023 polls but that excitement has since given way to frustration and despair as he continues to keep mum. We’re beginning to think that his silence is born of indecision between swallowing his pride and go back to ZANU PF or launching a fully-fledged opposition political party,” the source speculated.

The followers’ speculation is being fuelled by the fact that Kasukuwere seems to have strategically offered his name but distanced himself from the project by choosing not to publicly own it so that should he decide to approach ZANU PF to re-join the party he can always claim that he was approached by the youth and never formed a party. 

The source also highlighted that Ntokozo John Msipa, who runs the movement’s provincial Whatsapp group and acts as its de facto national co-ordinator, is also increasingly getting exasperated by incessant questions from followers which he cannot answer diminishing their confidence in the political grouping.

The recent formation of an opposition party by Kasukuwere’s fellow G40 member, Walter Mzembi last week has further shaken the TysonWabantu fragile project.

“We were hoping that his (Kasukuwere’s) colleagues Mzembi and Patrick Zhuwao would join hands with him and strengthen the movement but, alas, they had other ideas. We hear Zhuwao has joined Julius Malema’s Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) and Mzembi has formed his own party,” the source regretted.