HARARE-(MaraviPost)-A cryptic message from Zimbabwe’s most prominent investigative journalist, calling on the nation to pray for 30 days to avert bloodshed, has sent shockwaves across a country gripped by an escalating succession war between President Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa and his deputy, Retired General Constantino Chiwenga.
Hopewell Chin’ono, renowned for his exposes on corruption and his deep sources within the state, posted a stark statement this week:
“I had a dream, and in that dream I was told that every Zimbabwean who believes in prayer should pray for the next thirty days.
Those who believe in African Traditional Religion should kneel down and speak to the Almighty in their own way.
“The prayer is that a dark cloud, which will soon pass over our country, does so without bloodshed. I was told that a major decision is about to be taken.
“Depending on how it is taken, it could bring bloodshed, or it could bring peace, if all Zimbabweans seek divine intervention. Atheists, take a holiday. That is all I saw, and all I was told, in that dream.”
The post, deliberately spiritual rather than political, has been interpreted as far more than a dream.
Chin’ono’s followers, numbering millions across social media and international media, believe that as a seasoned and connected journalist with a track record of breaking stories from inside ZANU-PF, and the government may have inside information on the goings-on within the ruling party that he cannot publish outright.
His warning comes at the most volatile moment in Zimbabwean politics since the 2017 coup.
The intense power struggle between Mnangagwa, 84, and Chiwenga, 70, burst into the open at ZANU-PF annual conference in Chinhoyi recently.
Chiwenga, as commander of the Defence Forces, was the architect of the November 2017 military intervention that toppled Robert Mugabe and installed Mnangagwa, ushering in what they called the Second Republic. fc24
That alliance has now collapsed into open confrontation over who succeeds Mnangagwa.
In July 2026, Mnangagwa signed into law the Constitution of Zimbabwe Amendment No. 3 Act, which extended the presidential term from 2028 to 2030 and replaced direct election of the President by voters with election by Parliament. At the Chinhoyi conference, delegates then resolved to align the party constitution with those changes, to move the next elective congress from 2027 to 2029, and to keep Mnangagwa as party leader until 2030.
Chiwenga has fiercely resisted the maneuver. The ZANU-PF Politburo meeting scheduled for 9 October to prepare those changes was abruptly cancelled after a direct collision between the two leaders. Chiwenga reportedly told officials he would not allow Mnangagwa and his allies to illegally change the party constitution.
At the conference itself, Chiwenga delivered what many described as a rock-star speech, warning that the party risked repeating the mistakes that led to the Second Republic. “What led to the emergence of the Second Republic? It emerged from correcting the rot that was prevailing. Are we not repeating the same mistakes?” he asked, calling for a “brutal and honest self-appraisal”.
Mnangagwa responded with a biblical rebuke. At a tense Central Committee meeting, he warned: “Hatidi mweya waRigioni muMusangano wedu” — Shona for “we don’t want the devil’s spirit in our party” — a reference to a multitude of demons, in a clear swipe at his deputy. Party spokesman Christopher Mutsvangwa later mocked Chiwenga as a “loose bolt in a car engine”.
Analysts say Mnangagwa won the latest round, with his extension secured, but that the war is far from over. As Chin’ono himself noted after the conference, “General Chiwenga gave a powerful speech that got the media and the country talking, but it earned him nothing, because the very changes he was trying to stop were adopted”.
Yet Chiwenga’s defiance — boycotting Mnangagwa’s fundraising ball, skipping the funeral of Mnangagwa ally Wicknell Chivayo, and boycotting the swearing-in of businessman Kudakwashe Tagwirei as a minister — signals that the military faction he represents has not conceded.
It is in this context that Chin’ono’s call for 30 days of prayer is being read as a coded alarm. The “major decision” he references is widely believed to be the final move to lock in Mnangagwa’s succession plan or, conversely, a counter-move by Chiwenga’s camp.
For a nation that has seen a coup in 2017 and a history of violent ZANU-PF internal purges, the prospect of bloodshed is not abstract. Chin’ono’s message, framed as a dream to avoid censorship or accusations of incitement, has forced Zimbabweans to confront the possibility that the succession battle may no longer be confined to conference halls.
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