PRESIDENT Emmerson Mnangagwa used last week’s Zanu PF
annual conference week in Esigodini to further push his main internal rival
Vice-President Constantino Chiwenga against the wall in a major move that for
the first time after the November 2017 coup leaves him in a relatively firmer
position.
The conference’s most significant resolution was to endorse
Mnangagwa as the party’s sole candidate for the 2023 general election.
Since the hotly contested presidential poll on July 30,
Mnangagwa has been using his disputed mandate to reinforce his grip while also
moving to contain and sideline Chiwenga, who is widely believed to harbour
presidential ambitions.
Before the elections, Chiwenga had an upper hand as he
controlled levers of power following the coup which he masterminded and
thereafter bestowed the presidency on Mnangagwa.
Chiwenga also used his powers to influence appointments,
grabbing the vice-presidency and controlling the Defence ministry while at the
same time dictating the pace of events and national trajectory.
Following the coup, Mnangagwa was practically a lame duck,
having been hauled from a hideout in exile. He had no control of events on the
ground that led to the removal of former president Robert Mugabe.
In addition to that, Chiwenga was also in control of the
Zanu PF primary elections, leading to the general elections and also ran a
seemingly parallel campaign in the run-up to the polls. The military machinery,
with Chiwenga’s residual influence, also rescued Mnangagwa from what looked
like certain defeat by MDC Alliance candidate Nelson Chamisa. But soon after
the election, Mnangagwa has taken charge, decimating Chiwenga’s power base
through cabinet appointments that excluded his allies, real or perceived.
More critically, he also took the Defence ministry from
Chiwenga, apportioning it to one of his most trusted allies, Oppah Muchinguri
Kashiri, who before and during the Esigodini conference was one of the
strongest voices saying Mnangagwa should not be challenged in 2023.
In a bid to slow down the push, Chiwenga—who was hamstrung
by an illness which took him to South Africa for treatment—made some
spine-chilling outbursts at a meeting held at his rural home in Hwedza,
attended by senior Zanu PF officials mostly from his Mashonaland East home
province.
At the meeting, Chiwenga warned that he would not stand and
watch as some people played games with the country, a statement read by his
opponents as a direct salvo at Mnangagwa.
“We are all Zimbabweans from all the corners of the country
and no one is superior to the other. That’s why we stood up in November 2017;
we wanted to fight to leave inheritance for posterity and not promote an
individual. Therefore, you must not say now because I am there, nothing else
matters. Who are you?” Chiwenga was quoted as saying.
However, Mnangagwa’s allies were undeterred and directly
took the fight to Chiwenga. Hardly a week later, they gathered at the party’s
national headquarters in Harare and launched the campaign to ensure Mnangagwa
would not be internally challenged in 2023. The campaign was code-named #ED2023
Pfee and it reverberated through the conference tent from day one to the end.
It has been viewed as a political masterstroke in some
quarters. The conference duly obliged and adopted the pro-Mnangagwa mantra as
its key resolution.
After senior party official Jacob Mudenda completed reading
out the resolutions, which were immediately afterwards adopted by the
conference, a visibly captivated Mnangagwa said: “All the resolutions were
unequivocal and will certainly strengthen and consolidate the correct line as
well as our desire to grow and modernise our revolutionary mass party.”
Refusing to rest on his laurels on the back of the
conference resolution, Mnangagwa immediately took decisive action, when, earlier
this week, he moved, through Information minister Monica Mutsvangwa, to get rid
of editors at state-controlled newspaper group Zimpapers and replaced them with
new ones in a factional battle which also includes control of the state media
platforms, critical for the control of the narrative and information
dissemination.
A tug of war had been simmering between Mutsvangwa as well
as permanent secretary Nick Mangwana, on one hand, and deputy minister Energy
Mutodi on the other, over the removal of the editors.
For Mnangagwa’s allies, the debate is effectively closed
and he is now going to serve two terms, barring unforeseen events like
accidents and deaths which are known to alter the course of history.
For Chiwenga, this should certainly be a great betrayal,
having put his head on the block to rescue Mnangagwa from exile after he had
been fired from government.
To many in Zanu PF, it is hardly inconceivable that
Mnangagwa would have been president without Chiwenga’s intervention.
Mnangagwa for now has an upper hand and the big question
being asked in the corridors of power now is: could this be the end of Chiwenga
or is he just having a strategic retreat? But with the economy in spectacular
decline, Chiwenga and other Mnangagwa rivals could gain more ammunition to
fight back. Zimbabwe Independent
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