A push by Zanu PF’s wings for President Emmerson Mnangagwa to extend his tenure beyond the constitutionally-mandated two terms has left the party’s provincial chairpersons in a quandary as they are unsure if the plan will succeed, Newsday has reported.
The push for “ED2030” has sparked a power struggle within Zanu PF, pitting President Mnangagwa against his own Vice President, Constantino Chiwenga. While Mnangagwa’s supporters have been chanting slogans indicating his continued rule until 2030, Chiwenga has openly challenged this campaign, stressing that loyalty should lie with the party and the people of Zimbabwe, not with individual leaders.
“There is no room for factionalism at any level in the party. Our loyalty is not to individuals but to the bigger agenda, that of the party and the people of Zimbabwe who are supreme,” Chiwenga stated.
His comments have been interpreted as a direct challenge to Mnangagwa’s intensifying “ED2030” campaign. Mnangagwa and Chiwenga are reportedly engaged in a fierce power struggle over ZANU PF’s unresolved leadership and succession issues, which have intensified as the former attempts to extend his rule beyond the 2028 constitutional term limit to 2030.
NewsDay reports that the ruling party’s chairpersons fear attracting the wrath of Mnangagwa’s successor. According to the source, party members have found themselves in a quandary over the ‘ED 2030’ slogan, which signifies support for Mnangagwa’s push to remain in power until 2030.
The push comes despite Mnangagwa unequivocally stating that he would leave office at the end of his constitutionally-mandated two terms in 2028. It also emerged that some provincial party members have openly refused to chant the ‘ED 2030’ slogan, arguing that they should not be forced into demonstrating loyalty to a leader who has indicated that he wants to leave office when his tenure comes to an end in 2028.
The source told NewsDay that the members fear repercussions either way — risking expulsion from the party if they do not show allegiance, while also fearing that pledging support for Mnangagwa might backfire if he is no longer in power by 2030.
Provincial chairpersons in Masvingo, Midlands and Matabeleland North, who are seen as known Mnangagwa sympathisers, set the ball rolling by resolving that the President should rule beyond his constitutional two-term limit.
At a recent Zanu PF meeting, Chiwenga did not chant the ED 2030 slogan, calling for discipline “so that we achieve the 2030 vision” after youth had chanted the divisive slogan.
In what appears to be a clapback to Chiwenga, Vice President Kembo Mohadi, with chanting the divisive slogan.
“I don’t know if it is indiscipline that I have chanted the slogan, but our Constitution provides for freedom of expression,” Mohadi said.
Zanu PF sources said the party’s chairpersons no longer know which agenda to push.
“There are chairpersons who are known Mnangagwa allies who have been pushing for the 2030 agenda but Chiwenga has fought back and it is now not clear who is going to carry the day. So most of the chairpersons are now caught in-between,” the source said.
Mnangagwa, speaking at the Zanu PF National Assembly of the Youth League in Harare, declared his commitment to upholding the national constitution and respecting its term limits.
“Besides being a soldier, I am a trained lawyer. I am a constitutionalist. I want our party, our leadership, our people to be constitutionalists. We must abide by the provisions of our constitution to the letter. Kana nguva yekuti uende [yakwana], enda. (If your time to go comes, leave),” he said.
Last month in Mutare, Mnangagwa also hinted at his impending departure, stating, “I did my first five years, so I am serving my last five years, which I will complete soon, and I will go to rest. We will go to Congress and look for someone who will succeed me. My days to rest are close; we will go to Congress and choose the one who will follow in my footsteps.”
Meanwhile, The youth league, typically a hotbed of political ambition, has also been caught in the crossfire. Tinomuda Machakaire, the league’s national secretary, last month issued a stern warning to those who dare to discuss the succession, particularly those who have already begun throwing spanners on Vice-President Constantino Chiwenga’s ascendancy to the highest office on land.
“We are coming out of an election only held last year; we don’t want youths who go on social media to talk about the succession of the President. It is not for our age as the youth to talk about the succession of the President. Let the leadership do that and as for us we are there to support their decisions. If we see you talking about the leadership of the country, you are a lost youth,” Machakaire declared at a meeting in Goromonzi.
Machakaire’s pronouncements are a clear attempt to quell the growing unrest within the party, which has been fuelled by the perception that Mnangagwa’s announcement of his retirement is nothing more than a ploy to buy time and consolidate his power.
Chiwenga, the mastermind of the 2017 coup that brought Mnangagwa to power, has long been considered a potential successor. However, his health has been a source of speculation, and the deaths of key allies, such as former foreign affairs minister Sibusiso Moyo and former air chief marshal Perrance Shiri, have left him politically vulnerable.
“There are now doubts that Chiwenga will be the heir apparent because of his ill health. Chiwenga is exposed as he no longer wields power in military circles,” says Nairobi-based Zimbabwean analyst Tinashe Gumbo.
Efforts to get a comment from Zanu PF national political commissar Munyaradzi Machacha were fruitless as his phone rang unanswered.
Machacha last week admitted that there were frictions in Zanu PF and opposition political parties.
“We have noticed that there are disputes in both the ruling party and opposition parties. The sons of Zimbabwe are fighting against each other and in Zanu PF, there are frictions, (which is) the same with the opposition,” he said while addressing councillors attending re-orientation lessons by the Chitepo School of Ideology.
Zanu PF director of information and publicity Farai Marapira, told NewsDay: “We never had divisions as Zanu PF, we have been united. As a party we have conversations, ideas and growth. The ideas are only grown by conversations.”
Previously, former Zanu PF national political commissar Mike Bimha, said the “2030, vaMnangagwa vanenge vachipo” slogan was not recognised in the party.
As the ED2030 campaign rattles the ruling party, Christopher Mutsvangwa, a former advisor to President Mnangagwa who is also the Zanu PF spokesperson, has publicly defended Mnangagwa’s leadership, urging the nation to focus on the President’s achievements rather than succumbing to “distracting tittle-tattle” about succession.
“President Mnangagwa deserves to continue his good work at the helm of the government without being sidetracked,” Mutsvangwa stated, highlighting the progress made under Mnangagwa’s administration.
Mutsvangwa, has revealed that the party’s youth structures launched the “ED2030” campaign in response to a plot to force President Mnangagwa to name his successor before his term ends in 2028.
Mutsvangwa told The Standard in an interview that there were attempts to “subvert the party constitution” and coerce Mnangagwa into naming his successor before the right time. He claimed that the plot involved exiled former ministers Saviour Kasukuwere and Walter Mzembi. Kasukuwere and Mzembi have repeatedly distanced themselves from the raging ZANU PF succession wars.
Analysts fear Mnangagwa is likely to lose control of the party during his last term.
“The end of this reign is important because the jostling in Zanu PF elite circles will be fierce and directed towards building loyalty for the presumed successor [whomever that may be],” said Clionadh Raleigh, a Professor of Political Violence and Geography in the School of Global Studies at the University of Sussex said. – Newsday.
