FORMER Zanu PF youth leader Jim Kunaka's possible return to the ruling party has torched another factional storm that threatens to launch a political blood bath reminiscent of late President Robert Mugabe's firing of his deputy Joice Mujuru and later Emmerson Mnangagwa.
According to minutes of a Zanu PF Provincial Coordination Committee (PCC) meeting leaked by an X account that purports to represent children of liberation war veterans, Kunaka's application for readmission raised tensions and saw a member threatening to divulge names of all those working with him to unseat Mnangagwa.
Kunaka, once one of Zanu PF's most powerful officials during his days as head of the party's Mbare-based Chipangano militia group, is seeking readmission after over eight years of opposition activism.
He was fired at the height of Zanu PF factionalism during Mugabe's fight with former vice president Joice Mujuru in 2014, confessed to having been used by the party to unleash violence on opposition MDC-T supporters on live TV in 2015 before accusing the military of killing innocent lives at the Motlanthe Commission in 2018.
According to the minutes, signed by among others Harare PCC chairperson Godwills Masimirembwa, allowing Kunaka to rejoin Zanu PF was tantamount to aiding "those around Mnangagwa and further threatening national security."
He was accused of working with exiled former party bigwig Saviour Kasukuwere in a bid to unsettle Zanu PF and ensure Mnangagwa's exit.
Those threatening national security and that of Mnangagwa were said to be in the party's Politburo, Central Committee and Presidium by Ratidzo Mukarati, according to the minutes dated July 23.
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"During deliberations on Item 4 of the meeting's Agenda, which dealt with the application for readmission of two Comrades; Jim Kunaka and Terrence Khumbula, who had submitted their letter to DCC 6, the Provincial Chairwoman made the following utterances that were deemed distasteful, malicious, reckless and highly divisive," read the document.
"All of you here do not know Jim Kunaka as well as I do; All the suspended members whose Prohibition Orders were lifted by the National Disciplinary Committee were being set up (by who?).
"Members of the Harare PCC and specifically Central Committee and Politburo members and those surrounding the President are working with Kasukuwere with intentions of harming the President and that she knows those people by name.
"She went further to say that she knows the said culprits and was prepared to President who were now a security threat."
Kunaka's request for readmission was denied.
Zanu PF is currently riddled with factional fights as senior officials jostle to ensure their survival post Mnangagwa's tenure.
A section led by mostly Karanga-speaking members of Zanu PF in Masvingo is open to Mnangagwa tearing the constitution to shreds and awarding himself an illegal third term.
War Veterans on the other hand lead a faction calling for Mnangagwa to step down and make way for his deputy Constantino Chiwenga.
