The Standard

6th May 2018

Five years after promising to deliver 2,2 million jobs if voted back into power, Zanu PF is back promising 1,5 million houses in the next five years, if given another mandate in elections expected between July and August.

President Emmerson Mnangagwa on Friday presided over the launch of the ruling party’s election manifesto for the first time after taking over from long-time Zanu PF leader Robert Mugabe, who was toppled in a coup in November last year.

Besides promises to end Zimbabwe’s isolation, which drove the economy into an abyss in the last two decades, the manifesto is not different from previous unfulfilled pledges by Zanu PF.

The eye-popping figure of 1,5 million houses in five years, just like the 2,2 million jobs that never were, caught the interest of many observers who lamented that the ruling party was trying to use deceit to win votes once more.

“In its manifesto, Zanu PF makes a wild claim that it will deliver 1,5 million houses in five years,” tweeted Mt Pleasant aspiring MP Fadzai Mahere.

“This means 822 houses a day. How will this be funded? Who will build these houses? Will people have to buy them? With what money? We are being lied to again.”

Some of Mnangagwa’s vocal supporters on social media also refused to fall for the bait, describing the pledge as unrealistic.

“The claim by Zanu PF is wild and unachievable,” tweeted Matigari, who has been critical of MDC Alliance presidential candidate Nelson Chamisa for promising spaghetti roads, airports across Zimbabwe and bullet trains, if he wins the elections.

“It means they will build new houses for over 70% of all Harareans. Mnangagwa failed to build any rural houses when he was Minister of Rural Housing at the start of the millennium.

“How does he do it now?”

Former prime minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s advisor Alex Magaisa said the pledge on the manifesto did not tally with what Zanu PF was already doing on the ground.

After taking over from Mugabe, Mnangagwa’s administration promises 400 000 houses before July, but five months on, there is nothing to show for it on the ground.

The manifesto also promises an annual economic growth rate of 6% if Zanu PF wins its first election without Mugabe at the helm.

This year, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) projects that Zimbabwe’s economy will grow by 2,5% due to a rebound in agriculture and mining.

Zimbabwe’s economic growth rate fell dramatically from 2014 after a brief recovery during the era of the inclusive government.

Two years later the economy was growing at a snail’s pace of 0,6%, but Mugabe’s ouster has rekindled hopes of better times.

In this year’s manifesto, Zanu PF still promises to create jobs, but this time steered clear of mentioning figures.

“Zanu PF’s vision is to transform Zimbabwe into a middle income economy by 2030,” reads part of the 80-page manifesto.

“The party will focus aggressively on re-opening the country for business with the global community so as to rebuild our industries, create more jobs, eradicate the scourge of poverty and uplift people’s livelihoods.”

It promises to drill more boreholes in rural areas, build more schools, decentralisation of planning, and approve and promote growth of local industries in the provinces and districts.

In response to accusations that it has become a den for the corrupt, the ruling party said it would vigorously fight graft if voted back into office.

Former Education minister David Coltart said the Zanu PF message was being sent out by people that had lost credibility.

“I see the godfathers of corruption and parents of potholes are now promising to fight corruption and build spaghetti roads,” he tweeted.

“These are the same people who in the last election promised to create two million jobs, but have put thousands out of jobs since 2013.”

However, political analyst Alexander Rusero said the people should not read too much into the quality of the ruling party’s manifesto as it might not determine how voters pick leaders in the forthcoming elections.

“In most countries in Africa, people do not vote based on manifestos, but on what they get from the party, that is the first thing we should understand,” he said.

“You must understand that in most cases, those with good manifestos do not win while those with a bad ones do.

“In our case, Zanu PF will win because it has managed to capture the people and taken the message that has been for long a call from the MDC and made it theirs.”

Rusero said Zanu PF’s performance would be determined by the quality of its candidates.

“If you look at the 2013 Zanu PF manifesto you will discover that nothing was achieved but the party will still win,” he said.

“It is unheard of considering the power dynamics that happened last year for Zanu PF to lose the elections.

“So the manifesto is just a ritual, but Zanu PF has already done its homework to retain the power it got from Mugabe last year.”

After the manifesto launch, the ruling party is expected to aggressively sell its proposed policies in a vigorous campaign amid reports that it will spend a staggering $200 million.

Bulawayo News 24

5th May 2018

Former Minister of Education David Coltart has blasted ZANU PF manifesto calling the leadership Godfathers of corruption and parents of pot holes.

Coltart responded to ZANU PF manifesto which was launched yesterday were the party promised to fight corruption and deal with road development.

“I see the Godfathers of corruption and Parents of pot holes are now promising to “fight corruption “& build spaghetti roads!” he said via micro blogging Tweeter.

He also reminded people that the same leadership gave fake promises inform of 2 million jobs in the last election but to date they have sent thousand out of employment.

“These are the same people who last election promised to create 2 million jobs but have put thousands out of jobs since 2013.”

Apparently, the ruling party has begun its 2018 election campaigns.

Byo24 News

5th May 2018

Former Minister of Education David Coltart has blasted ZANU PF manifesto calling the leadership Godfathers of corruption and parents of pot holes.

Coltart responded to ZANU PF manifesto which was launched yesterday were the party promised to fight corruption and deal with road development.

“I see the Godfathers of corruption and Parents of pot holes are now promising to “fight corruption “& build spaghetti roads!” he said via micro blogging Tweeter.

He also reminded people that the same leadership gave fake promises inform of 2 million jobs in the last election but to date they have sent thousand out of employment.

“These are the same people who last election promised to create 2 million jobs but have put thousands out of jobs since 2013.”

Apparently, the ruling party has begun its 2018 election campaigns.

The Herald

4th May 2018

When we reflect on our days as children and the games we used to play, in most cases hide and seek appears to rank extremely high on the list. The main reason could be the adventurous nature of the game itself, or some of its other rather intriguing aspects like running and tracking your opponents.

As adults the tendencies adopted and associated with this childish game, in many cases create a multitude of problems, especially if you are accused of hiding the truth, connected to real life situations.

From the moment that President Mnangagwa assumed the mantle of political leadership in Zimbabwe, US-EU imperialism has been extremely uncomfortable, with the ruling party’s approach to engaging them diplomatically.

Because our former colonisers and enslavers have never called the shots in Zimbabwe, since independence was emphatically declared 38 years ago, they have been reduced to the position of window shoppers on the outside looking in.

Regardless of the political and economic hardships Zimbabwe has endured, that are a by-product of US-EU sanctions, this dynamic automatically magnifies the nation’s electoral process.

During the tenure of former president Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe countered the political heresy of US-EU imperialism by adopting and maintaining a closed door policy when it came to invitations to observe Presidential, parliamentary and local government elections on the ground.

After the nation had the opportunity to completely digest the rapid political dispensation process, President Mnangagwa and Zanu-PF immediately devised a foolproof strategy, to shatter the myths concerning how everything actually transpired on the ground.

This included everything from overcoming amateurish and dishonest claims, stemming from pseudo radical and progressive voices in the West claiming an all-out coup d’etat occurred, and that the land reclamation and indigenisation programmes were being scrapped altogether.

The manner that President Mnangagwa and Zanu-PF have handled this angle being propagated by the US-EU imperialist apparatus is by inviting US-EU imperialism to come and observe the upcoming elections, which our former colonisers and enslavers will never openly admit caught them completely off- guard.

Since US-EU imperialism’s invested so much time demonising former president Mugabe, going back to the days of Zimbabwe’s Second Chimurenga, key governmental policymakers in the US-EU imperialist apparatus have been forced to adopt a wait-and-see approach concerning how to deal with President Mnangagwa.

When US Senators Christopher Coons and Jeff Flake recently visited Zimbabwe and implied that lifting US-EU sanctions could depend on how the upcoming elections are conducted, the two main responses by Africans both at home and in the Diaspora was “Hold your horses” and “Who do they think they are fooling?”

Thanks to the track record of our former colonisers and enslavers that if measured by length, would extend from the planet Earth to the Milky Way, the children of Mother Africa at home and abroad are very clear what US-EU imperialism is seeking to accomplish in Zimbabwe.

Because US-EU imperialism approach to presidential politics inside their own borders places such a strong emphasis on individuals, which is after all at the root of capitalist culture and values, this compromises their ability to function on the world stage.

This dynamic reveals that US-EU imperialism’s regime change policy concerning Zimbabwe will always exclusively target Zanu-PF as a party, because the biggest threat to their interest is a political entity with an astute veteran leadership, who has overcome all of their dirty tricks.

The US State Department might as well post a banner on their website that reads “Yesterday Mugabe, Today Mnangagwa, Down with ZANU-PF”, especially since it is no secret that the plan is to maintain US-EU sanctions as long as Zanu-PF remains in power.

Their problem is the predictability and staleness of their narrative, which President Mnangagwa and Zanu-PF have brilliantly exposed in open like food on a restaurant buffet or flesh that cannot be covered by a swimsuit worn at the beach.

For the last 17 years US-EU imperialism has defiantly propagated the notion that the sanctions are merely a measure that only targets a select handful of individuals, only to ensure that they not abuse political power and the rule of law. However, Senators Flake and Coons on the world stage stated this was the key bargaining point of Zimbabwe’s elections.

These type of political situations should teach Africans in the Diaspora who have either capitulated to US-EU imperialism or spent an eternity showcasing our individual and collective excellence, hoping this would lead to equal treatment and other political benefits, that the element of surprise will always be our best weapon on the battlefield.

The dilemma that faces our former colonisers and enslavers is when it comes to identifying political allies in Africa, Asia, the Carribean and Latin America, US-EU imperialism has always had a pervertic and unhealthy fascination with violent, ruthless and greedy heads of states, who due to exhibiting these characteristics are indeed their extensions and willing servants in every sense of the word.

Another fatal blow to US-EU imperialism’s regime change agenda in Zimbabwe is that the political gangsterism and thuggery they have continuously attempted to associate with Zanu-PF now is the dominant expression of their very own political creation – the Movement for Democratic Change.

When former Zimbabwean parliamentarian and MDC founder of European ancestry Ambassador Trudy Stevenson was viciously attacked by her own members 12 years ago, US-EU imperialism looked the other way, today another MDC founder member who is a Washington and London favourite with unlimited access Caucasian biological make-up Mr David Coltart has been forced to come out and call the MDC process shocking and distasteful.

What US-EU imperialism realises is their Zimbabwe regime change agenda is more compromised than ever before for a multitude of reasons.

There is an undeniable conflict with a poem by one of England’s most celebrated poets during the Victorian era, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, entitled “How Do I Love Thee” that begins with the title “How Do I Love Thee? Let Me Count The Ways”.
With the opposition US-EU imperialism created in shambles and tatters, and 400 civil society groups who have survived primarily because of funding from the National Endowment for Democracy, the National Democratic Institute ,The Open Society Initiative and International Republican Institute led by Carl Gershman, Madeline Albright, George Soros and John McCain.

By the way, it was extremely amusing to see the son of MDC founder David Coltart, Douglas Coltart, pictured in an article written by Columbus Mavhunga entitled “Fired striking nurses resume work”. Since CNN is certainly not an ally of President Mnangagwa and Zanu-PF, we are thankful that they caught young Mr Coltart’s hand in the cookie jar continuing the work he began when working as an Uhuru Fellow for the International Republican Institute.

If these nurses went to the US and British embassies and protested US-EU sanctions on Zimbabwe, young Mr Coltart and his father would have been on CNN stating that they were coerced by President Mnangagwa and Zanu-PF to carry out this act in order to maintain their employment.

We remember the lucidity of the Most Honourable Elijah Muhammad when advising Brother Malcolm that we should always give our people a choice, the analogy used was putting the clean glass next to the dirty glass.

When and if US-EU imperialism sends delegations to Zimbabwe for the purpose of observing the upcoming elections, let us keep in mind they will be next to the AU and Sadc observers, part of the decolonisation process is deciding who is better qualified and invested in analysing elections in Africa.

Zimbabwe also has at its disposal an invaluable human resource, former Zimbabwean Ambassador to the USA Dr Simbi Mubako, who is also an honorary elder to Comesa, whose analysis of Kenya’s previous presidential elections received continent-wide approval.

President Mnangagwa and Zanu-PF have absolutely nothing to hide from our former colonisers and enslavers. In the words of Brother Malcolm whether it is the ballot or the bullet, we are more than qualified to wage combat.

Obi Egbuna Jnr is the US correspondent to The Herald and External Relations Officer of Zicufa. His email is obiegbuna15@gmail.com

Bulawayo News 24

22nd April 2018

FORMER education minister David Coltart says he is appalled by the way the Commonwealth and the British government have rushed to embrace President Emmerson Mnangagwa.

According to NewZimbabwe.com, the opposition politician accused “the (Mnangagwa) regime of brazenly violating the country’s constitution by refusing to open up State media”.

A member of MDC party led by Professor Welshman Ncube, Coltart said Zanu-PF was refusing to open up State media in violation of section 61(4) of the constitution, in addition to firing of striking nurses without following due process.

“I’m utterly appalled by @ Commonwealth and the #British government feting the Zimbabwe regime as it brazenly violates our constitution refusing to open up State media in violation of section 61(4) and by firing nurses without due process and all rest,” said Coltart on Twitter.

The UK government has actively engaged with efforts by Mnangagwa’s government to improve relations which had been frosty for nearly two decades under former president Robert Mugabe.

Britain recently invited Zimbabwe for a roundtable meeting on the side-lines of the Commonwealth Heads of Government summit in London.

UK foreign secretary Boris Johnson also told media that his country would back a Zimbabwe bid to re-join the Commonwealth if elections scheduled for between July and August go smoothly.

Nehanda Radio

22nd April 2018

Elections are not necessarily about bravado, faith and hope only, they are also about strategy, rationale and logic. Nelson “Wamba Dia Wamba” Chamisa’s supporters are high on unrestrained hope and faith and refusing to learn from lessons of not so long ago.

History is the best teacher as it holds the benefit of 20/20 hindsight, it is empirical not prophetic.
History gives us the necessary tools to predict the future within reason.

Elections are not just a game of rallies but also a game of voting numbers.
Every vote counts in an election as we saw in 2013 and if the opposition thought 2013 was tough, 2018 is going to be tougher because they are not up against an ailing and geriatric Robert Mugabe.

A lot of MDC Alliance supporters are relying more on un-interrogated wisdom than on the real game of numbers, common sense & objective reality.

The break up of the MDCT into the Nelson Chamisa and Thokozane Khupe factions is only beneficial to ZANUPF parliamentary electoral chances and Emmerson Mnangagwa’s presidential bid.

The MDC Alliance needs Matabeleland under their electoral victory belt in order to even consider a realistic chance of winning the general election.

Without Matabeleland, it will be daydreaming to imagine a Nelson Chamisa presidential victory, an objective that will only become pursued but unattainable if the two protagonists fail to find common ground in resolving the leadership tussle that is now in the courts of law.

In 2013, the two MDCs of Morgan Tsvangirai and Welshman Ncube lost more than 7 seats to ZANUPF in Matabeleland South alone.

They would have won these seats had they fought as a United MDC.

That is an undeniable reality of elections, they are not won on emotions or hyperbole, they are won on grassroots engagement and on not dividing the vote.

They are won on making sure that you are as united as you can be.

The reason why Emmerson Mnangagwa is holding on to toxic ministers like Joram Gumbo, Supa Mandiwanzira, Obert Mpofu, David Parirenyatwa and Petronela Kagonye is for that very fact alone and nothing else.

He knows that they command variable grassroots support and if he got rid of them now, they would lead Bhora Musango campaigns against his presidential bid.

He also has to make a rational calculation on the votes he might lose for keeping them against the votes he will retain for not firing them, at least for now.

Thokozani Khupe represents such a mortal danger to Nelson Chamisa’s presidential bid and a real disaster for the MDC Alliance parliamentary prospects in Matabeleland.

Many in the MDC Alliance believe that Wamba is wildly popular and as such, he can go it alone.
Such a misplaced political calculation and infantile notion needs us to read the future with the aid of a rear view mirror perspective.

It is important to remind us of the fact that Morgan Tsvangirai was more popular than Wamba is today, but he lost 10 seats in Matabeleland South alone because of that disunity syndrome.

These parliamentary seats could have been retained if the two MDCs had fought as a united front.
Tsvangirai even lost Kwekwe Central to ZANUPF and yet the combined MDC vote was higher than that of ZANUPF.

MDC-T’s Blessing Chebundo lost to ZANUPF’s Masango Matambanadzo in Kwekwe by only 255 votes. If you add up the 508 votes that the smaller MDC’s Cathrine Bobo got, a united MDC would have won the seat by 253 votes.

That loss to ZANUPF was the unintended consequence of disunity, a political dashboard error that continues to infest the MDC’s thought process to this very day. The combined vote of the two MDCs would have won them 10 seats more than they got in Matabeleland South alone.

Today’s numbers at Khupe’s “congress” shows that she is not someone to recklessly dismiss. She will not win any presidential election even in fantasyland, but she is capable of stopping Wamba from any prospective victory both in parliament and in the presidential race.

If I were Wamba, I would sit down with her and cobble up a deal to see them through the elections then sort out the rest after the plebiscite. Wamba’s hardcore social base must understand that it is a game of numbers stupid!

I have seen a lot of memes mocking Thokozani Khupe and sometimes derogatively so, the post-election memes might be a joke on the Alliance comrades.

They are fighting a war with Khupe and yet they are failing to see that she has different political objectives to theirs. Hers is to stop Wamba, and Chamisa’s objective is to win the presidency.
One can’t deploy the same strategies for different desired outcomes.

Why would Emmerson Mnangagwa need to lose sleep about how to decapacitate the opposition when they are doing a very good job of it by themselves? What Mnangagwa needs is legitimacy and the reality is that he has the power of incumbency and runs the electoral machine.

Mnangagwa and his deputy, Constantino Chiwenga, put their heads on Mugabe’s block and they survived the guillotine treatment that many of their colleagues fell foul to.

They pulled the biggest Harry Houdini of our times by essentially putting tanks in the streets, getting their enemies not only to march for them but with them too, then getting away with the global censure that usually follows such military interventions.

They are not stupid and to imagine that they did all those unimaginable acts only to govern for seven months then hand over power peacefully to a divided opposition outfit, it requires Dr Dixon Chibanda, the famous Harare psychiatrist to examine those holding that view.

The MDC Alliance has lost its erstwhile friends in the western diplomatic community in Zimbabwe, more so Britain, the mother country that carries the ultimate western democratic moral dictate on Zimbabwe.

For any election in Zimbabwe to be discredited, it can only come from the Western alliance that includes Britain.

That alliance is desperately eager to see economic and political stability in Zimbabwe and Britain will call the shots according to a senior western diplomat. These are some of the things that the opposition and Wamba must bear in mind.

It won’t be an easy road unless if they fix their own internal problems and constitutional contradictions, the first one is to unite!

As they say, unite or die. I am not a descendent of a Jewish prophet and nobody needs to be one to understand these things that we should all hold to be self-evident a long as we are applying logic and restraining our emotions from empty rhetoric and slogans and also filtering partisanship mantras.

Wamba has a rag tag army of activists driving his agenda, Mngangagwa has state machinery, super powers and powerful businessmen with long pockets looking after their self interests.

Whilst the local media has focused on the deadwood he inherited from Robert Mugabe, they have ignored the sharp minds around him like Local Government minister July Moyo who was part of the team that set up the south Sudanese government.

He is the most influential and closest man to Emmerson Mnangagwa and yet he is unassuming whilst deadly and effective and some say the right hand man who plotted his rise to power.

For the first time in twenty years, I have heard white Zimbabweans talking about voting for ZANUPF, they say “I am voting for ED because he understands business’ adding that he is the only realistic hope for them.

For white Zimbabweans, there seems to be a natural mystic flowing through out the air and they keep saying that things will not be the way they used to be anymore.

They base these declaratory statements on what the president has promised them. I use Bob Marley’s wisdom to explain what we are hearing from ZANUPF’s erstwhile enemies these days, a distant thunder from six months ago when Robert Mugabe was in power.

Today I asked the son of the former education minister, David Coltart, about what he thought was the position of the white community regarding the elections and their preferred candidates.

Swinging back and forth in his office chair at his law chambers, human rights lawyer Doug Coltart said that generally speaking the white community is disconnected from the struggles of most Zimbabweans and are not that concerned about human rights and democracy.

He said that they are more interested in their personal comfort and securing their business interests, as is Zimbabwe’s black business elite class.

Like all the influential drivers to the Zimbabwean change project, they got tired and weary of fighting and have chosen to work with the most realistic options available to them, as opposed to the dogged pursuit of beautiful aspirations which seem distant to their immediate needs.

What will it take for Wamba and Khupe to realise that unity is strength and that it gives hope to those sitting on the fence? Perhaps the penny will drop for them when everyone walks away post election with a result that they would have helped to predetermine through their intransigence.

There won’t be a geriatric 94-year-old bogeyman to demonise, just a croc smiling once more with the top prize that has been elusive to the democratic project for 18 years.

As the saying goes, “to sit back hoping that someday, some way, someone will make things right is to go on feeding the crocodile, hoping he will eat you last – but eat you he will.”

Whilst hope and faith have become the intoxicating spiritual feed for Zimbabwe’s poor and desperate masses every Sunday morning, not all especially those controlling the levers of power will take note of the pastor’s parables and tales of a bulletin train futuristic tomorrow.

Wamba needs to think hard about the mistakes made by his recently departed mentor, Morgan Tsvangirai. Only history will give him a realistic picture of what the future might look like.

Emmerson Mnangagwa did not become president through a beauty contest, he visualised a reality he wanted to live in and worked hard for it to culminate including sitting on the same table with unpalatable characters. I am not sure if God was in it or not, but his dream came through, it did happen.

Hopewell Chin’ono is an award winning Zimbabwean journalist and documentary filmmaker. He is a CNN African journalist of the year and Harvard University Nieman Fellow. His next film, State of Mind looking at mental illness in Zimbabwe is coming out soon. He can be contacted on hopewell2@post.harvard.edu or on twitter @daddyhope

Cricbuzz

10th April 2018

Two weeks of turbulence in Zimbabwe cricket will reach a critical juncture on Wednesday (April 11) when the country’s sports minister meets with representatives from the Zimbabwe Cricket board as well as a group calling for the board to resign. Among those who will be monitoring the reaction of sports minister Kazembe Kazembe to those meetings is the ICC, whose relationship with ZC has reached a crucial stage.

ZC has come under sustained pressure from several quarters since the board decided to sack national coach Heath Streak, his entire technical staff, selector Tatenda Taibu and captain Graeme Cremer in the wake of the team’s failure to qualify for the 2019 World Cup. The decision was made at an impromptu board meeting on March 25 that, Cricbuzz understands, had no formal agenda, and was arrived at without any consultation with the players or affected coaching staff.

The clearout has thrown Zimbabwe cricket into disarray, not least because the manner in which it was carried out was unlawful. The coaches were given a deadline by which to resign or face the axe. Many of them opted to resign – in part because it was made clear that they could re-apply for the vacant positions – but three coaches who refused to do so took up legal action. Streak, batting coach Lance Klusener and strength and conditioning coach Sean Bell challenged ZC, leading to the farcical situation where they were rehired and then fired again on the same day.

On Monday, in correspondence seen by Cricbuzz, ZC’s lawyers wrote to the trio’s legal representative: “After extensive consultations with our client on the position of the law, our client has resolved to unreservedly retract all and any communications leading up to the ultimatum to resign and the subsequent dismissals against your clients. Kindly note that our client will shortly advise your clients of the way forward.”

The coaches’ contracts were subsequently terminated with three months’ notice – in accordance with Zimbabwean labour law. ZC is expected to advertise the vacant positions within the next week but has suffered extensive reputational damage, which was made worse by ZC chairman Tavengwa Mukuhlani intimating in an interview that Streak had made selection decisions based on race. Streak, who is currently in India working as the bowling coach for the Kolkata Knight Riders, hit back with a video riposte that went viral. Speaking in Ndebele, one of Zimbabwe’s native tongues, he labeled attempts to brand him a racist as “preposterous and laughable”.

Streak’s standing with Zimbabwe followers has become clear since his sacking was made public, with the vast majority of social media posts condemning his treatment by ZC. That groundswell of support led to the creation of a group calling themselves the Zimbabwe Cricket Family, whose cause has been taken up by politicians from both sides of the spectrum. Last week, in a lengthy statement that spelt out the various failings of ZC’s board, former sports minister and opposition politician David Coltart called on the Sports and Recreation Commission to suspend the ZC board under section 30 of the SRC Act for “conducting itself in a manner that is contrary to the national interest”.

The call was backed up at a press conference given by the Zimbabwe Cricket Family on Friday, which was fronted by long-time development coach Lazarus Zizhou. The group claim to have assembled several dozen individuals from across the racial divide who have played a key role in cricket structures over the past two decades, including a handful of former Zimbabwe players. Zizhou was flanked by Temba Mliswa, a firebrand politician who sits on the parliamentary portfolio on sports. “Failure to resign by the ZC board within seven days we are going to create parallel structures,” Mliswa said on behalf of the group. “We are giving them seven days to resign, after which they will be playing cricket on their own and watching cricket on their own. We shall call upon all the people of Zimbabwe to boycott their matches until they are gone.”

All of the dissenting voices have raised the lack of cricket experience on the ZC board as a key problem. But Mliswa’s involvement confirmed the politicisation of the issue within Zimbabwe. Not only does this bring into question which way Kazembe Kazembe might lean after Wednesday’s meetings, but also how the ICC might react to political interference.

This is especially important given the sensitive negotiations over a financial assistance package, which has moved closer to reality in recent months. It is understood that an ICC decision on a potential bailout is possible as soon as their next conference, which takes place in Kolkata in two weeks’ time. But any decision by the sports minister to remove the ZC board would scupper that process, with the government interference potentially leading to questions over Zimbabwe’s status as a full member.

Away from the politics, ZC confirmed on Tuesday that the domestic season would resume next week after a four-month delay. The pause was a result of the need to upgrade grounds ahead of the World Cup qualifiers, but also ZC’s parlous financial state. It was thought that the remaining three rounds of the Logan Cup and much of the Pro50 would not be completed, but ZC confirmed that the first-class competition will now resume on April 19. It will be concluded on May 15, while the remainder of the Pro 50 tournament will run from May 17 to June 2.

Provincial contracts will be extended by a month due to the extension of the season, and ZC’s head of cricket affairs told a press conference in Harare that outstanding salaries should be paid “in the next few days”. Players were paid 40% of their salaries for February, and although the balance was settled at the end of March, their salaries for March are still outstanding.