The succession struggle within Zimbabwe’s ruling Zanu-PF has resurfaced with increased intensity amid speculation that President Robert Mugabe will announce his retirement at the party’s crucial congress in December.
Official sources say the issue has come back with heightened ferocity ahead of the critical congress, which party spokesperson Nathan Shamuyarira has said would be a ”defining moment” for Zimbabwe.
Shamuyarira recently said Mugabe could announce his retirement plans at the congress. He warned there would be serious in-fighting if Mugabe hinted at relinquishing power beforehand.
Well-placed sources say the succession battle currently pits two camps — one led by Secretary for Administration Emmerson Mnangagwa and the other by Zanu-PF politburo heavyweight, retired army commander General Solomon Mujuru — against each other.
The two groups are said to be engaged in combat in a bid to seize strategic ground within the party in preparation for the final assault for power.
Sources say recent developments surrounding Mnangagwa — who Shamuyarira says is one of Mugabe’s potential successors — such as illegal gold-dealing allegations and the probe of Zanu-PF companies, are part of the escalating succession battle.
Mnangagwa was recently accused of receiving about Z$16-million from an alleged illegal gold dealer, Mark Mathew Burden, who has been arraigned before the courts.
Zanu-PF sources say Mnangagwa’s arch-rivals in the Mujuru camp are actively manoeuvring to counter his ascendancy as the succession fight intensifies.
The Mujuru group is said to be behind the recent appointment of an internal team to investigate Zanu-PF companies that Mnangagwa controlled.
Mnangagwa, also Speaker of Parliament and fourth in the ruling party pecking order, was Zanu-PF treasurer and a member of its companies’ boards for many years.
Together with the Joshi brothers — Jayant and Manharlal Chunibal — and Dipak Pandya, who recently fled the country to escape the investigation, Mnangagwa firmly controlled Zanu-PF’s financial levers for some time.
Zanu-PF businesses are seen as opaque and controversial.
The ruling party never produced audited books during the past 23 years, except for one announcement in 1992 to the effect that its assets then were worth Z$486-million — a lot of money at the time.
It is understood that Mnangagwa’s rivals are hoping he would be implicated in corruption and plunder after the internal graft probe, something calculated to damage his repu- tation and undermine his succession prospects.
Mnangagwa’s adversaries are already using accusations of pillage involving precious minerals during the Democratic Republic of Congo war as a political weapon against him.
”The in-fighting is now serious and is getting increasingly worse. It’s now a dog-eat-dog affair,” a source said.
”The Mnangagwa and Mujuru camps are battling to gain advantage over each other.”
The composition of the Zanu-PF investigation squad formed late last month has raised eyebrows and lends credence to claims that the Mujuru camp is behind the whole issue.
The team comprises Zanu-PF finance secretary David Kariman- zira, who is the chairperson, former finance minister Simba Makoni, Matabeleland North Governor Obert Mpofu, Deputy Transport Secretary Thoko Mathuthu and Mujuru himself.
A source said: ”If you look closely at the group there is no doubt it is dominated by the Mujuru camp.
”Karimanzira is Mujuru’s ally in Mashonaland East province and Makoni is part of the camp. Which-ever faction Mpofu and Mathuthu support it’s immaterial because they are window-dressers anyway.”
Mujuru is regarded as the Zanu-PF king-maker. His power derives from his role as a wartime second-in-command general — after the revered Josiah Magamba Tongogara — within the ranks of Zanu-PF’s military wing, Zanla, during the struggle for independence from Britain in the 1970s.
Last year Mujuru, who retired from the army in 1992 but still wields a lot of influence within the military, was linked to a clandestine committee that was formed to gather and collate people’s views on Mugabe’s succession debate.
The team was, however, later disbanded after it was alleged to have fuelled Zanu-PF factionalism.
The Mujuru camp is seen as powerful because it apparently includes Zanu-PF politburo kingpins Dumiso Dabengwa and retired Air Marshal Josiah Tungamirai.
Mujuru is not interested in becoming president wants but to install an ally. Defence Minister Sydney Sekeramayi, party chairperson John Nkomo and Makoni are said to be his favourites.
In a rare insight into Zanu-PF internal dynamics, Shamuyarira recently said Mnangagwa was going head-to-head with Nkomo in the succession race. He also said Sekeramayi, a close Mujuru associate, and former Zimbabwe Defence Force commander General Vitalis Zvinavashe, Mnangagwa’s ally, were in the succession picture.
For the first time Zvinavashe this week admitted he is a politician and declared himself ready to play ”any role given to me by the ruling party or the government”.
The Zanu-PF succession fight is said to have now permeated state security structures where Mnangagwa and Mujuru exercise huge influence.
The roping in of security agents has created an explosive situation.
Mujuru is influential in the army, while Mnangagwa, former state security minister, is connected within the Central Intelligence Organisation.
Following recent illegal gold-dealing allegations, Burden claimed he was tortured by the police to implicate Mnangagwa.