Zanu PF’s internal squabbles are as old as the party itself, yet each time they erupt, the masses are cynically roped in to legitimise, sanitise, and humanise what is, at its core, a ruthless struggle for power.
The current factional wars, pitting president Emmerson Mnangagwa’s loyalists against vice president Constantino Chiwenga’s supporters, bear an uncanny resemblance to the November 2017 coup that ousted Robert Mugabe.
Then, as now, the rhetoric of fighting corruption and serving the people was weaponised to mask a bitter succession dispute.
The masses, however, are no longer easily fooled.
Once bitten, twice shy!
In 2017, Zimbabweans flooded the streets in an unprecedented show of unity, demanding Mugabe’s resignation.
The movement, orchestrated by war veterans and ZanuPF barons and backed by the military, was framed as a people’s uprising against state-sponsored corruption and the excesses of Mugabe’s inner circle, particularly the infamous G40 faction.
The populist slogan “targeting the criminals around Mugabe” suggested a purge of corrupt elements that were causing social and economic suffering, but it was merely a smokescreen for a well-planned palace coup that saw Mnangagwa ascend to the presidency.
Masses that were initially euphoric during the protests would later realise they had been pawns in a power game and would suffer the excruciating consequences of the proliferation of a corrupt system.
Fast forward to 2025, nearly a decade later, the script resurfaces eerily similar, with the same rhetoric unchanged but different wording targeting “Zvigananda around Mnangagwa.”
War veteran Blessed Geza, last Tuesday in a no-holds-barred address, called for anti-Mnangagwa protests on March 31, invoking the same pro-people rhetoric.
Geza, the face of the March 31 protests, ultimately employs the same language of niceties advocating for change and justice ad was used in 2017, yet the driving force remains a struggle for control over the party and, ultimately, the state.
The anti-Mnangagwa demonstrations, much like those against Mugabe, are not about genuine reform but about settling deep-seated scores within Zanu PF.
The question Zimbabweans must ask is: what comes after these factional battles?
This is not a grassroots uprising, it is another chapter in Zanu PF’s never-ending factional wars.
Are the masses wiser this time?
Do they remember how the 2017 protests, initially celebrated as a victory for the people, ultimately served only to legitimise Mnangagwa’s rise to power?
The parallels are striking. In both instances, the factional disputes are dressed up as populist movements, with the masses used as pawns to lend credibility to what essentially are internal Zanu PF power struggles.
The rhetoric of fighting corruption and serving the people is a smokescreen, designed to obscure the fact that these battles are waged not for the benefit of ordinary masses, but for the enrichment and empowerment of a select few.
Zanu PF’s factional wars have nothing to do with the masses.
They are about power, pure and simple.
Zanu PF’s elites have mastered the art of co-opting popular grievances to advance their own agendas, only to discard them once their objectives are achieved.
At the height of the November 2017 coup, Zanu PF legal secretary Patrick Chinamasa’s infamous statement, “Chinhu chedu” (it’s a Zanu PF thing), epitomised the coup’s perception within the party as an internal power struggle, not a people’s revolution.
In the same vein, the current protests risk becoming a repeat performance.
The lesson for the masses is clear: “do not be hoodwinked.”
Zanu PF factional wars are fought in the name of the masses but do not serve their interests.
The masses must resist the temptation to be drawn into yet another Zanu PF succession dispute.
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Honestly Zimbabweans should stay out of these Zanupf attritional wars and seek their own independence..