HARARE-(MaraviPost)-Zimbabwe’s long-running succession feud has burst into the open after President Emmerson Mnangagwa used a biblical reference to attack his deputy, Vice-President Constantino Chiwenga, at a tense ruling party meeting.
Addressing Zanu PF’s Central Committee at the party headquarters in Harare ahead of its annual National People’s Conference, Mnangagwa warned delegates against division, saying in Shona: “Hatidi mweya waRegioni muMusangano wedu” – “We don’t want the spirit of Legion in our party.”
In the Christian New Testament, Legion refers to a man possessed by a multitude of demons, recounted in the Gospels of Mark and Luke.
The remark was widely interpreted as a direct rebuke of Chiwenga, the former army commander who led the November 2017 military intervention that removed late former president Robert Mugabe and installed Mnangagwa.
Eight years after that alliance, the two men are locked in a fierce battle over who will succeed the 83-year-old president.
Mnangagwa told the committee:
“The Party and national interest remain central and at the core of our discussions. I urge us to distinguish between principled contributions intended to improve the Party and reject conduct that seeks to divide or derail the Conference Agenda. Preferences of cliques and narrow inclinations, among other retrogressive acts, have no place in our Party.”
Sources within the party say Mnangagwa has resisted Chiwenga’s claim to succeed him and is instead leaning toward alternative successors, including business tycoon and newly appointed Economic Development and Investment Promotion Minister Kudakwashe Tagwirei and former Zimbabwe Defence Forces commander, retired General Philip Valerio Sibanda.
Chiwenga, who views his role in 2017 as giving him an entitlement to the top post, has not publicly declared his candidacy, but his allies have pushed for adherence to Zanu PF’s original succession hierarchy.
Tensions were underscored by a series of high-profile absences by the vice-president.
According to party officials, Chiwenga was the only member of Zanu PF’s top six presidium to boycott the President’s Fundraising Dinner Ball on Saturday, an event which reportedly raised around US$10 million for the conference. He also did not attend the funeral of late businessman Wicknell Chivayo last week, and was absent from Tagwirei’s swearing-in as minister on Monday.
The Politburo and Central Committee meetings this week are preparatory sessions for Zanu PF’s Annual National People’s Conference, which officially opens in Chinhoyi, Mashonaland West Province, on Friday.
The conference is taking place against a backdrop of proposed constitutional amendments and intensifying succession maneuvering within the ruling party, which has governed Zimbabwe since independence in 1980.
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