THE new National Appeals and Review Committee of the ZANU-PF Central Committee tasked with considering appeals from party members aggrieved by either their suspension or expulsion by the National Disciplinary Committee (NDC) is set to deal with 36 cases, Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa said yesterday

VP Mnangagwa told mourners at the burial of former Zanu-PF Women’s League secretary for administration Esphina Nhari, who was conferred with liberation war heroine status and buried at Gweru Provincial Heroes’ Acre that the committee would execute its mandate without reproach.

“Nhari rose through the ranks to become the Zanu-PF Women’s League secretary for administration up to the time she was suspended, but President Mugabe looked at the whole process of suspensions which saw dozens of party members being suspended and said No!, and he came up with the National Appeals and Review Committee of the Central Committee.

“The committee is going to review the suspensions and 36 names which include that of the late Nhari will be dealt with. We are burying her today but her case will also be heard so that we know what happened leading to her suspension. Her name is one of the 36.”

Nhari, who got a three-year suspension for chanting a slogan “Down with G40”, had lodged an appeal.

The new tribunal, chaired by Vice President Phelekezela Mphoko, has 10 other Central Committee members, one from each province.

The Central Committee is the party’s highest decision-making body between congresses.

The committee – set up at the instigation of President Mugabe – comes after some party members expressed misgivings with the NDC, whose officials sometimes brought cases as complainants and at the same time arbitrated over them without giving the alleged offenders an opportunity to defend themselves.

Mphoko used to chair the NDC.

The members of the new committee are: Cdes Jacob Mudenda (Matabeleland North), Paul Mangwana (Masvingo), Ellen Gwaradzimba (Manicaland), Absolom Sikhosana (Bulawayo), Tabitha Kanengoni (Mashonaland Central), Sydney Sekeramayi (Mashonaland East), Douglas Mombeshora (Mashonaland West), Tambudzani Mohadi (Matabeleland South), Melody Dziva (Midlands) and Sabina Thembani (Harare).

Patrick Chinamasa now chairs the NDC while Mike Bimha comes in to fill the vacancy left by Mphoko.

Reports say dozens of party members had lodged appeals against their suspensions and among them are former Politburo members Cdes Webster Shamu and Nicholas Goche.

The two were suspended for aligning themselves to sacked former Vice President Joice Mujuru and her cabal which sought to unseat President Mugabe ahead of the revolutionary party’s 2014 Congress.

ZANU-PF Secretary for Information Simon Khaya Moyo said all disciplinary cases were still pending as the NDC had not met since the last Politburo meeting. Source: the herald