PREVIEW
Growing divisions in the army and among war veterans, coupled with criticism from the vice-president, threaten the President as unease about corruption mounts
The rift between factions in the Zimbabwean army, as well as veterans of the 1970s war of liberation, and President Emmerson Mnangagwa appears to be broken beyond repair (AC Vol 65 No 23, Mnangagwa takes on the army). Similarly, Mnangagwa’s relationship with his Vice-President, former General Constantino Chiwenga, who led the 2017 coup that ousted Mnangagwa’s predecessor Robert Mugabe, is also in a precarious state.
At a press conference in Harare last week, a group of liberation veterans led by Blessed Runesu Geza, popularly known in Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) circles as ‘Bombshell’, demanded Mnangagwa’s resignation, accusing him of grand corruption and incompetence. Meanwhile, at a funeral days later, Chiwenga took up a similar theme, pointing to ‘corrupt tenderpreneurs’ who had grabbed state funds.
‘During the war we referred to them as leeches, those who grow big tummies through ill-gotten wealth and questionable morals,’ he added. In response, the audience of mourners, most of them ZANU-PF supporters, shouted the name of Wicknell Chivayo, a controversial businessman and close associate of the president (Dispatches 29/10/24, Opposition cries foul over elections contract to firm in graft probe).
Chiwenga and many in the army flatly oppose attempts by Mnangagwa and his allies to extend his tenure as president, a battle that seems to dominate the coming months (AC Vol 66 No 1, Mnangagwa hunkers down). Last October, delegates at the ZANU-PF annual congress passed a resolution calling for Mnangagwa to stay on beyond the end of his second term in 2028 (Dispatches 6/11/24, Mnangagwa’s circle is lobbying for third term).
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