HARARE – Businessman Kudakwashe Tagwirei, reported to be eyeing the presidency, faces major political hurdles after Zanu PF spokesman Chris Mutsvangwa warned him to keep his ambitions in check.
Some senior Zanu PF officials are reportedly lobbying for Tagwirei to be parachuted into the 300-member central committee and politburo, amid claims that he has President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s backing to succeed him.
But Mutsvangwa, himself a presidential aspirant, says Tagwirei will face a “challenge” if his target is Zanu PF’s top job.
“Anybody is free to join Zanu PF, whether you be a businessman, a farmer, fisherman or whatever. If certain provinces feel that that person should become a central committee member and they send their recommendations, the party will consider those resolutions and will come out with an appropriate decision,” Mutsvangwa told a news conference on Wednesday when asked directly about Tagwirei’s ambitions.
He continued: “What would be wrong is to say I’m getting into the party so that I become this or that post, that I become the president, because that is not the purpose of joining the party. The purpose of joining the party is to follow the constitution of the party and see to it that when succession is done by votes, you comply with the tenets of that party.
“It’s a mass party, it’s not a vanguard party, it allows everybody to come into the party. But if you come on a ticket that I want power, the people may see through what you want and that becomes a challenge.
“Hopefully all the businessman entrants who come through will come to serve the party and not to serve themselves because serving themselves will not take them anywhere in Zanu PF, I can vouch for that. Just like presidents who went haywire and we removed them, Zanu PF will winnow out any people with hidden ambitions other than following the strictures of Zanu PF.”
Mutsvangwa’s reaction betrayed growing discomfort in Zanu PF over the controversial millionaire tycoon’s growing influence in the party, and his reported ambitions to be president.
Mnangagwa and his powerful wife, Auxillia, are reportedly determined to stop Constantino Chiwenga, his deputy and many people’s favourite to succeed him, from assuming the presidency based on many calculations including apprehension that he will crackdown on their dodgy business allies once he takes power.
Mnangagwa is bound by the constitution to serve only two terms. His second and final term ends in 2028, although his supporters are seeking constitutional amendments to keep him in power until 2030.
The 82-year-old, however, maintains that he will not stay in power a day longer than the constitution allows, and some Zanu PF insiders have briefed that while Mnangagwa may be genuine, that is not the full story.
The plan, they say, is to push through the constitutional amendments postponing elections due in 2028 and extending not only the president’s term by two years but also the life of parliament to 2030.
Effective 2023, Zimbabwe’s new constitution adopted in 2013 provides that in the event that the president resigns or is incapacitated, his party will select a successor to finish his term.
It is through this key provision, they say, that Mnangagwa will seek to influence the succession developments in Zanu PF.
The insiders said this was the thinking behind seemingly urgent moves to position Tagwirei in both the central committee and the politburo.
Once satisfied that the 56-year-old Tagwirei, or whoever else he may choose as his successor has the force to win the party mandate, Mnangagwa would then resign, leaving that person to carry on until 2030 in the hope that they can use that time to endear themselves with the Zimbabwean public and win the postponed elections.
The plan relies heavily on Zanu PF succeeding with the constitutional amendments which legal experts say would require a public referendum, and what other Zanu PF leaders with ambitions to succeed Mnangagwa, like Mutsvangwa and Chiwenga, do in the interim.
A Mnangagwa supporter, an MP, told ZimLive he was familiar with the Zanu PF leader’s succession planning.
“The president believes that the era of leaders who went to the war is over, and it’s time for a young leader who must be given a soft landing to establish himself. That’s what 2030 is all about,” the lawmaker said.
Tagwirei, who made his fortune from state contracts, had not answered questions sent to him by ZimLive.
(This story has been edited to give the correct interpretation of the succession clause in the 2013 constitution which was was parked for 10 years and only became effective from 2023)
