from MARCUS MUSHONGA in Harare, Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe Bureau
HARARE, (CAJ News) – THE renewed infighting battering the ruling party does not bode well for Zimbabwe, a country with a reputation as one of the most unstable in the continent.
The last time the 62-year-old Zimbabwe African National Union Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) was this divided, it ended in a military coup that dislodged Robert Mugabe (now late) as president.
Plans by his successor, Emmerson Mngangawa (82), to extend his final, five-year term beyond 2028 is tearing the Zimbabwe ruling party apart, and is an emerging threat to the constitution of the troubled Southern African nation.
A faction behind Mnangagwa is pushing for him to go beyond the stipulated 2028, but faces fiercest opposition to another ZANU-PF faction that is backing his deputy, retired General Constantino Chiwenga (68), the army general that masterminded the coup to remove former president Robert Mugabe and install Mnangagwa as the leader.
Plans are underway by the faction to amend the constitution and repeal presidential terms.
The rival factions clashed this week during the burial of a liberation war hero, Justin Mupamhanga, at the National Heroes Acre, outside the capital Harare.
Led by some ministers in the cabinet, each faction denounced the other openly through songs, in what was a sideshow at the burial.
The country ought to be celebrating 45 years of independence from Britain, but instead is gripped by a feared implosion of the ruling party.
Chiwenga has been making the most of his position as Acting President to denounce corruption within some in the leadership of the ex-liberation movement.
This is seen as an attack on Mnangagwa and his backers, with those benefiting from the presidency of Mnangagwa are seen as being behind a campaign to extend his term.
Mnangagwa’s son and nephew are part of the cabinet, as deputy ministers.
“Zimbabwe belongs to all of us,” Chiwenga said at the Heroes Acre during the burial of Mupamhanga.
This is the fourth burial at the national shrine this month.
Chiwenga at the burials has attacked some corrupt individuals within ZANU-PF.
“The Vision 2030 is for all of us, not those mbingas (corrupt officials),” he said at the most recent one.
While Mnangagwa’s support base is seen as business leaders within the party, Chiwenga has the backing of security forces and the liberation war veterans of the 1970s liberation war.
This past weekend, the Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans Association (ZNLWVA) demanded the resignation of Mnangagwa, who they accused of corruption, nepotism and economic mismanagement.
“Instead of correcting the mistakes of Mugabe, Mnangagwa has proven to all of us that Mugabe was actually a saint,” Blessed Runesu Geza said on behalf of the war veterans’ association.
A member of ZANU-PF Central Committee, Geza was speaking at a press conference in Harare.
War veterans are an integral part of ZANU-PF. They are accused of violence against citizens to force them to vote for the ruling party in previous polls. Traditional chiefs and party youths are also blamed for targeting opposition members.
Before Mugabe’s ouster in 2017, the party was torn into two factions, with one supporting the then first lady, Grace Mugabe, and the other backing Mnangagwa.
The expulsion of Mnangagwa and his brief stay in exile in both Mozambique and South Africa triggered the coup.
Thousands of Zimbabweans flocked to the streets, with Chiwenga lauded as a hero by masterminding the end of Mugabe’s 37 year rule.
Mnangagwa won a first term in 2018 and 2023, both in elections the opposition claimed were rigged.
ZANU-PF is accused of infiltrating the opposition, rendering it weak.
Daniel Garwe, ZANU-PF Mashonaland East provincial chairperson, said plans to have Mnangagwa extend his term were “unstoppable.”
“Vision 2030 is unstoppable and will be fulfilled with President Mnangagwa in office. No one will stop it,” he said.
Lawyer Brian Mutebuka said Zimbabwe had “entered the corridor of political uncertainty” and Mnangagwa’s pursuit of a third term presented a security threat and was destabilising the government.
“These are clearly very sensitive political developments bound to shake the very foundations of the state,” he said.
Mutebuka described the prevailing tensions as “one of the most dangerous periods in Zimbabwe’s young history.”
– CAJ News