FOLLOWING last month’s surprise recovery and return of
Vice-President Constantino Chiwenga from China where he was receiving medical
treatment, President Emmerson Mnangagwa has moved with speed to politically and
administratively consolidate his power while curtailing his highly ambitious
deputy.
Mnangagwa obtained Zanu PF’s backing to contest the 2023
elections although he has served only one-and-a-half years of his five-year
term. He also used his influence this week to cause cabinet to approve numerous
constitutional amendments aimed at entrenching himself in power.
Mnangagwa used last week’s Zanu PF annual conference in
Goromonzi to further push his main internal rival against the wall, obtaining
an overwhelming endorsement from the delegates as leader of the party as well
as its sole presidential candidate for future elections in a major move that
leaves him in a relatively firmer position.
Mnangagwa has an uneasy relationship with Chiwenga, whose
political manoeuvres since the November 2017 military coup that toppled
Zimbabwe’s former president Robert Mugabe suggest he harbours presidential
ambitions.
Chiwenga, who was commander of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces,
orchestrated the coup which thrust Mnangagwa into power. Zanu PF insiders say
the two struck an agreement that Mnangagwa would rule for five years before
paving way for Chiwenga in 2023.
The two erstwhile allies have, however, fallen out because
of Chiwenga’s presidential ambitions and Mnangagwa’s consolidation bid, which
has seen him elbowing out the former military commander’s allies in both
government and the army.
Mnangagwa has in the aftermath of the conference gone for
broke as cabinet moved to approve a raft of constitutional amendments aimed at
power consolidation.
The most defining amendment approved by cabinet on Tuesday
was the Constitutional Amendment Bill of 2019 which will allow the
president-elect to appoint two vice-presidents, while repealing the provision
of running mates.
The amendment will effectively repeal a clause in Section
92 of the 2013 constitution which provides for the joint election of the
President and two running mates selected by the presidential candidate starting
in 2023. The arrangement, borrowed from the American electoral system, would
imply that vice-presidents would have their own power base and their removal
from office would require the same constitutionally provided impeachment
process applied in the case of the President.
Presenting the cabinet decisions matrix at the end of the
meeting on Tuesday, Information minister Monica Mutsvangwa said the amendment
would also give the President power to hire and fire his or her deputies on
various grounds, including that of physical incapacitation. This dovetails with
what Zanu PF hawks intended to do with Chiwenga before he returned after his
prolonged illness. They were pushing for his removal on the grounds of
incapacitation.
“It also set out in Section 95 the conditions under which a
Vice-President will vacate office, which include resignation, removal by the
President, serious misconduct, failure to uphold the Constitution or inability
to perform the functions of the office due to physical or mental incapacity,”
Mutsvangwa said.
Justice minister Ziyambi Ziyambi explained why the
government had decided to do away with the running mate clause so as to create
one centre of power, which in this case is Mnangagwa.
“We believe it is not desirable in our constitutional
dispensation to create separate centres of power. We would rather have a
president elected by the people and then appoints his team, vice-president and
cabinet. That is the thinking. That is what is practised in Southern Africa and
several countries,” Ziyambi said in a recent interview.
The constitutional amendments will also allow Mnangagwa to
handpick judges for the High Court, Supreme Court and the Constitutional Court
without undertaking public interviews. All he needs to do is consult the
Judicial Service Commission. The same would also apply in the appointment of
the Prosecutor-General and a Public-Protector.
Judges are viewed as crucial in the Zanu PF factional
matrix given that they handle cases which may shape political fates, for
instance the MDC’s high-profile presidential election challenge of last year.
“Mnangagwa made giant strides in his consolidation bid by
getting a mandate from Zanu PF and effecting constitutional changes through
cabinet. He is now clearly in the driving seat because he has managed to
isolate Chiwenga,” a top government official said. “He has taken full advantage
of Chiwenga’s illness to decimate his camp. It has been a long road of
consolidation and this week was a major milestone alongside the earlier
disruption of Chiwenga’s critical military support base.
“The constitutional changes are significant in that the
vice-presidents will serve at the pleasure of the President, even post-2023.
There will be no running mate, meaning the VPs will be appointees. An appointee
is weak and cannot openly challenge the appointer because of the risk of being
dropped from office.”
Since the hotly contested presidential poll on July 30 last
year, Mnangagwa has been using his hotly disputed mandate to strengthen his
grip on power.
For instance, Mnangagwa overlooked Chiwenga’s allies in his
initial cabinet announcement in September last year in a move seen as aimed at
whittling down his deputy’s ambitions.
In February this year, Mnangagwa also retired three
major-generals and an air vice-marshal aligned to Chiwenga from the military
and reassigned them to the diplomatic service, taking them off active military
service.
These are former commander of the Presidential Guard
Anselem Sanyatwe, who directed the coup on the ground. He also commanded a standby
force that quelled last August’s post-election violence and left at least six
dead and the civil unrest that rocked the country in January this year which
claimed the lives of at least 17 people.
Also discharged from the military were major-generals Douglas
Nyikayaramba, Martin Chedondo and former air vice-marshal Shebba Shumbayaonda,
all of whom have since joined the less influential foreign mission posts.
The build-up to the conference was punctuated by
behind-the-scenes manoeuvres by Zanu PF bigwigs to topple Chiwenga from his
influential position on grounds of incapacitation following his four months
hospitalisation in China where he underwent complex medical procedures. Zimbabwe
Independent
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