Mugabe under pressure to appoint Mnangagwa as his successor

By Itai Mushekwe

HARARE – President Robert Mugabe is under severe pressure to appoint feared defence minister, Emmerson Mnangagwa as his successor immediately after watershed elections whose result will be out this August, if he wins.

The move being engineered by hard-line military generals would skyrocket Mnangagwa to be the second republic president of the former British colony ahead of current Vice President, Joice Mujuru, the favoured moderate.

High level Zanu PF sources told Nehanda Radio the military plan is for Mnangagwa to takeover possibly by December 2013, and finish off Mugabe’s five year term while the octogenarian leader retires.

In the meantime Mugabe, could appoint him as the country’s first Vice President, to replace the late John Nkomo, effectively elbowing Mujuru out of the way and preparing the former Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) boss at independence in 1980 for the highest office in the land.

Mnangagwa insiders say could quite potentially be in office until 2028, if Zanu PF wins in Mugabe’s last electoral race. Under the new constitution signed last month to replace the Lancaster House Constitution signed in Britain in December 1979, a president has a limited tenure of two five year terms.

This means that whoever replaces Mugabe will finish up his first five year term to 2018, laying a firm ground for them to go another 10 years of their official term in office.

Nehanda Radio has been told the security chiefs are responsible for ordering Mugabe to use a presidential decree, to force polls by July 31, thus evading parliament to the outcry of Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s MDC which has been ambushed to the ballot before crucial security sector and media reforms have been made.

Sadc has since requested Mugabe to consider a two week extension of the July deadline, and it is almost but certain that polls will be held no later than August 14.

“At the nexus of the military hardliners strategies, is exiled former Ethiopian leader, Mengistu Haile Mariam who is acting as a consultant and adviser to Zimbabwe Defence Forces Commander, Constantine Chiwenga,” an army source said.

“Mengistu is telling them to move fast if they are to remain in power, by deploying a significant number of serving and retired army officers to contest as Zanu PF parliamentarians, so they can influence any eventuality of an electoral college, should the August house end up voting for Mugabe’s successor.

“That way there is no bloodshed, it is a bloodless political putsch. Moreover the military elements making their way into the legislature, will rubberstamp Mnangagwa’s nomination for president,” the army source told Nehanda Radio.

Mengistu has been living in the opulent suburb of Gunhill in Harare since 1991, after being granted special political asylum by Mugabe, as his guest. The former dictator has been sentenced to death in absentia by Ethiopia’s High Court, for the alleged killing of 2000 people during the Ethiopian civil war.

At the turn of the year the country, lost its second vice president, John Nkomo, who died of cancer, therefore opening a vacancy in the Zanu PF presidium and government which hitherto has not been filled.

“We are in for interesting times ahead,” said a Zanu PF minister close to the president’s office.

“A new vice president should have been appointed by now, but those in the know are telling us President Mugabe is reserving this position for Mnangagwa, in a new cabinet to be formed if we win these elections.

“This automatically means that Joice Mujuru, will become the second vice president, while Mnangagwa is appointed first vice president making it easy for him to eventually become Head of State.”

Speculation is rife in political circles that Mugabe wants to leave office during the first six months of his new tenure, and that his exit is being carefully managed by the military’s top brass.

“This election is the most important of all for Zimbabwe since Independence. The army generals are easing Mugabe out, and their plans seem to be working well so far,” the minister said.

It had been highly anticipated that current Zanu PF chairman, Simon Khaya Moyo, a former Zimbabwean Ambassador to South Africa and Zapu official was going to be named vice president, but he is considered “too junior” to Mnangagwa.

Many senior figures from Zapu, which signed a unity pact with Mugabe in 1987 to merge with Zanu PF are now dead, thus weakening Khaya Moyo’s chances.

The most notable Zapu leaders who have passed on are all former vice presidents, such as Zimbabwe’s first vice president, Joshua Nkomo and his successor Joseph Msika.

Zanu PF and Zapu made a non-binding agreement to reserve the second vice presidency slot to a former Zapu cadre.

The most senior ex-Zapu official who could have had a realistic chance of appointment had he not left Zanu PF, is Dumiso Dabengwa, who ditched Mugabe together with former finance minister Simba Makoni in 2008.

Giving credence to reports that Mugabe is under “intense pressure” to hand his defence minister with power, are remarks made by Chiwenga on September 15 2012 in Kwekwe, at Mnangagwa’s 66th birthday where he was the guest of honour, describing him as a national hero who is the only surviving member of senior party officials who attended Zanu PF’s first politburo meeting.

“Mnangagwa is the only surviving member of the first politburo meeting because in the first days, President Mugabe did not attend the politburo.

“All the others who attended the first meetings are now dead. I’m sure he is alive for a reason which we all know,” Chiwenga stunned birthday well-wishers in the Midlands city

Zanu PF secretary for administration, Didymus Mutasa, has been the most vocal dissenting voice in the party speaking against Mnangagwa’s perceived presidential ambitions. Mutasa said the defence minister is far away in terms of the party’s hierarchy to be next in line to the throne ahead of Mujuru.