Zimbabwe’s president stays put as succession drama plays out

Zimbabwe’s 84-year-old president has secured his party’s endorsement to continue in office after 2030 when his current, extended term ends. But attention is already turning to succession.

When the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (Zanu-PF) met for its annual conference last Friday, it postponed the election of party president for two years until 2029. And it endorsed Zimbabwe’s president Emmerson Mnangagwa as its candidate at the next presidential election the following year.

Mnangagwa, who succeeded Robert Mugabe in 2017, signed a constitutional amendment earlier this year extending presidential and parliamentary terms from five to seven years, extending his current term by two. And the president will no longer be chosen in a popular election but by a vote in parliament, where Zanu-PF enjoys a huge majority.

Mugabe resigned after more than 30 years as president under pressure from the military and from within his party. Mnangagwa, who had been in exile after Mugabe fired him as vice-president, returned just before the military intervention.

Constantino Chiwenga, the general who led the military move against Mugabe, is now Mnangagwa’s vice-president. And at last Friday’s party conference, he suggested that the current president was following the same, dangerous path as his predecessor.

“What caused the Second Republic to be in place? It was meant to fix mistakes of the past. Are we not repeating the same mistakes?” he said.

Chiwenga was long tipped to become Zimbabwe’s next president but Mnangagwa has sidelined him and his allies, some of whom have been removed from the party leadership. And as the president has sought to diminish Chiwenga’s status, he has elevated Kudakwashe Tagwirei, a billionaire businessman.

Tagwirei made his fortune selling fuel but his interests have expanded over the past decade to include mining, manufacturing, construction and logistics. Sanctioned by the United States for corruption in 2020 and by Britain the following year, Tagwirei is the main financier for Zanu-PF and he has cultivated business ties with Mnangagwa’s family.

Within the past year, Tagwirei has joined Zanu-PF’s central committee and politburo, become a senator and joined the government as minister for economic development. This rapid ascent has fuelled speculation that Mnangagwa is grooming the billionaire businessman to be his successor.

The president’s patronage may not be enough to secure the succession for Tagwirei, whose lack of political experience leaves him ill-prepared for the intensity of party infighting at which Zanu-PF excels. And Chiwenga’s standing as a party veteran, his military links and his history of toppling a president means that it is too early to write off his ambitions.

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