Zanu PF plot to oust Chiwenga explodes

A Zanu PF faction loyal to President Emmerson Mnangagwa tried to put a plan in motion to remove Vice-President Constantino Chiwenga from his position at last week’s central committee meeting, but they were stopped in their tracks as the infighting in the ruling party reaches a climax.

Chiwenga has become a target of the president’s loyalists, who accuse him of opposing Zanu PF’s 2024 annual conference resolution to extend Mnangagwa’s stay in office until 2030.

The former army general is accused of harbouring presidential ambitions with Zanu PF spokesperson Christopher Mutsvangwa making a public disclosure that the 2030 plot was hatched to stop him from ascending to the presidency.

It has since emerged that Zanu PF loyalists now want Chiwenga to be replaced by the ruling party’s benefactor Kudakwashe Tagwirei.

Plans are already under way to co-opt Tagwirei into the central committee and he was supposed to have made a presentation at a meeting of the ruling party’s top decision making body outside congress held in Harare last week, but the plans were scuttled by Chiwenga’s intervention, a top Zanu PF official has revealed.

If Tagwirei had been allowed to make a presentation as part of a resource mobilisation committee, a choreographed campaign by Zanu PF provincial structures would have followed for him to be elevated into the central committee.

Vice-President Constantino Chiwenga congratulates Lieutenant General Anselem Sanyatwe (Retired) after he was sworn in as the Sport, Recreation, Arts and Culture minister by President Mnangagwa last Thursday.
Once he becomes a member of the central committee there would be a campaign to have Tagwirei elevated into the presidium to replace the out of favour VP.

The central committee meeting was preceded by a tense politburo meeting where Mnangagwa railed against indiscipline in the party in an address that seemed to be targeted at Chiwenga’s faction.

Zanu PF sources said Chiwenga was surprised at a briefing session when it emerged that Tagwirei and another Mnangagwa ally, Paul Tungwarara would make presentations.

The two were already in the gallery and Chiwenga demanded to know why they were attending a central committee meeting when they were not members.

Mnangagwa referred his deputy to Zanu PF commissar, Munyaradzi Machacha for answers.

“Machacha told the VP that the two were supposed to make presentations on fund raising,” a central committee member disclosed.

“Chiwenga told him that the procedure should be that they make the presentations to the commissar who will then present in the central committee.”

He demanded that the two be escorted out of the meeting.

Masvingo provincial chairman, Robson Mavhenyengwa, confirmed in an interview with TellZim that the province wanted Tagwirei to be elevated to the central committee.

According to those familiar with the plot, Chiwenga would be removed on the basis that he has allowed his backers to use social media to attack Mnangagwa.

At the central committee meeting, Zanu PF chairperson Oppah Muchinguri-Kashiri presented on the state of the party and singled out social media as the biggest threat to Zanu PF’s cohesion.

She raised a point on attacks against the president on social media as a major concern, another source said.

Chiwenga told the meeting that the central committee must come up with a resolution on responsible social media usage to avoid implosion in the party.

“Chiwenga said if the central committee fails to solve the social media problem, it would be tantamount to inviting war,” the source said.

He was supported by a woman from Mashonaland West who said it was not only Mnangagwa who should be protected from social media abuse, but all party leaders.

Chiwenga’s camp believes Tagwirei has become a powerful power broke and is being prepared for higher office.

Mutsvangwa was not reachable for comment on the latest developments, but in a recent interview with a UK-based news platform DugUp, he was scathing about the VP’s alleged presidential ambitions.

He claimed that Chiwenga wanted to force Mnangagwa to anoint him as his successor, a demand the president has rejected.

“That guy wanted to be anointed to become president, to become a successor to the president,” Mutsvangwa said.

“So you want to remove the president but before you do so you want him to appoint, to annoint you. How do you do that? You’re squaring a circle!

“(Robert) Mugabe used to say I will nominate, I will give you my successor but the president (Mnangagwa) is saying no, we must go for elections. That’s normal for a democratic party.” Standard