High noon for Mnangagwa
Vice-President Emmerson Mnangagwa faces what might turn into his most defining two days in the intriguing Zanu PF power struggles with his rivals, NewsDay Weekender has learnt.
Mnangagwa is locked in a bitter power tussle with a Zanu PF faction boasting tacit support from President Robert Mugabe and First Lady Grace, who has turned into a political sledgehammer in the build-up to the ruling party’s extraordinary congress next month.
With tempers reaching fever pitch, parallel structures emerging and Mnangagwa literally turned into a sitting duck, Mugabe will address a youth interface rally in Bulawayo today while Grace will on Sunday address an apostolic sect rally in Harare.
Zanu PF Harare provincial commissar Shadreck Mashayamombe confirmed Grace’s rally to be staged at Rufaro Stadium.
“It’s there on Sunday (tomorrow) and we are expecting a bumper crowd. We just want to afford members of the apostolic sect a chance to interact with their political leaders. They will obviously take advantage to air their views on different issues in the process,” Mashayamombe said.
Insiders said Mugabe was today likely to lay the framework for the “final siege on Mnangagwa” before Grace hits the final nail on the Vice-President’s coffin on Sunday.
“The G40 faction is going for the jugular, they want to finish off Mnangagwa and think the time is now. There will be calls for Mnangagwa’s expulsion and possible push for criminal charges,” another source said.
To make matters worse, four of Mnangagwa’s acolytes in Masvingo and the Midlands have been suspended and Zanu PF legal secretary Patrick Chinamasa, one of the Vice-President’s allies has been handed the unenviable task of prosecuting them.
Mugabe has agreed to the extraordinary congress including allowing changes to the party constitution to allow for the inclusion of a woman into the Zanu PF presidium, effectively paving the way for Grace to become his deputy.
A circular from party secretary for administration Ignatius Chombo giving notice of the extraordinary congress only spoke of the women’s quota, but was mum on the third vice-presidency issue.
G40 has also been toying with the idea of pushing forward Defence minister Sydney Sekeramayi as a possible successor to Mugabe.
But insiders claim Chombo is also positioning himself for possible elevation into the presidium while the extraordinary congress could see the reintroduction of the “dormant” position of national chairman.
“As things stand, the situation is fluid. Chombo is a rank outsider, but given the ethnic dynamics in Zanu PF and if the President wants someone from his side of the divide then he (Chombo) is the man. He is close to the President and actually the faction of war veterans on the G40 side are divided between Chombo and Sekeramayi,” the NewsDay Weekender was told.
But former Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans’ Association chairman Patrick Nyaruwata recently wheeled back into active politics by a desperate Mugabe whose relations with the former fighters has hit a low ebb said he was not aware. Nyaruwata is supposed to provide leadership to a faction of war veterans hitherto fronted by Manicaland Provincial Affairs minister Mandiitawepi Chimene.
“I am not aware of any campaigns going on for succession,” Nyaruwata said.
Chimene’s deputy in the G40-backed group, George Mlala, seemed to have a low opinion of the extraordinary congress called by Mugabe.
“The real Zanu PF congress is in 2019 that is when we can begin to talk about those issues. At the moment Mugabe is our leader including his deputies, there will not be succession talk,” Mlala said.
BY RICHARD CHIDZA
