In ZANU-PF'S internal struggle both provinces are in the camp that follows Emmerson Mnangagwa; around the Chipinge district of southern Manicaland the Shangaan-Ndau people had remained unswervingly loyal to Mugabe's predecessor as party leader the late Ndabaningi Sithole offering the MDC a base on which it swept all but four of the province's seats last year...
President Robert Mugabe regards him as dependable and studiously neutral in the factional fighting between supporters of the former Zimbabwe Defence Forces chief General (retired) Solomon Mujuru and current Defence Minister Emmerson Mnangagwa...
Didymus Mutasa rules the roost in Manicaland; Nathan Shamuyarira in Mashonaland West; David Karimanzira in Harare; Emmerson Mnangagwa in the Midlands; Stan Mudenge in Masvingo; and John Nkomo in Matebeleland...
Meanwhile the case docket on a rhinoceros horn-trading prosecution in which Defence Minister Emmerson Mnangagwa and Information Minister Webster Shamu were to give evidence has disappeared in the Prosecutor's office...
Since the power-sharing government began work in February the Politburo of the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front has leaked like a sieve with graphic details of the rows between former army chief Solomon Mujuru and Defence Minister Emmerson Mnangagwa to succeed Robert Mugabe as First Secretary of ZANU-PF and then as presidential candidate...
Succession feud festers In ZANU-PF the succession feud between the Mujuru and Emmerson Mnangagwa factions is festering on the back benches...
They claim that Defence Minister Emmerson Mnangagwa has formed a 'Social Revolutionary Council' to force the collapse of the unity deal...
The absence of Defence Minister Emmerson Mnangagwa Mugabe's heir apparent suggests a half-hearted commitment...
Its chief proprietors include Oliver Chidawu a former Mayor of Harare said to be linked to Emmerson Mnangagwa's faction of ZANU-PF who benefitted when Anglo American sold banking assets to his consortium...
Zambia's cautious Banda remains a close friend of the man most often tipped to follow Mugabe the lawyer Emmerson Mnangagwa who lived for many years in Zambia and would probably be pleased if closer ties with Malawi and Zambia lessened Zimbabwe's reliance on South Africa with talk now of joining the rand monetary zone...
He is probably less at ease with Emmerson Mnangagwa and Herbert Murerwa who makes a surprise return to Land Reform...