Still a deft politicker Mugabe returned to Harare to outflank both the faction leaders of his Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front and the securocrats by allowing his allies to float stories that his chosen successors might include Security Minister Sidney Sekeramayi or retired Air Vice-Marshal Henry Muchena the election supremo at ZANU-PF headquarters...
World-weary Security Minister Sydney Sekeramayi spent an afternoon showing and his party round the shopping malls of plush Borrowdale...
If any of them are pushed out they are likely to be replaced by other party loyalists as Mnangagwa and Sydney Sekeramayi are the ministers in charge of security...
With the heads of the police and prison service they are members of the Joint Operations Command (JOC) chaired by Minister of State Sydney Sekeramayi; the other member is the Reserve Bank Governor Gideon Gono...
Mugabe has nominated old hands with whom he feels comfortable: Didymus Mutasa Sydney Sekeramayi Stan Mudenge John Nkomo Obert Mpofu and Ignatious Chombo...
The same applies to Sydney Sekeramayi transferred from Defence to State Security who was once considered a rival of Mnangagwa; they now seem to work closely together though Sekeramayi is from the same province as Mujuru...
Defence Minister Sydney Sekeramayi hastily convened a press conference flanked by Zimbabwe Defence Forces Commander Constantine Chiwenga and ZNA Commander Lieutenant General Phillip Sibanda...
SADC leaders heard a proposal by Ibbo Mandaza an ally of third presidential candidate Simba Makoni for a Tsvangirai presidency with Dumiso Dabengwa and Joyce Mujuru as vice-presidents and with the Mugabe stalwarts Didymus Mutasa (State Security) Kembo Mohadi (Home Affairs) and Sidney Sekeramayi (Defence) retaining their posts...
As Defence Minister and with a base in Mashonaland East (Solomon Mujuru’s home) Sydney Sekeramayi might present himself as a compromise candidate but recently he has been inexplicably quiet...
The Province’s leading light Sydney Sekeramayi has kept a very low profile...