Mnangagwa – Chiwenga feud: When there is no honour among thieves

There is no honour among thieves! This timeless adage aptly captures the intricate scheming and relentless plotting characterising the bitter succession battle within the ruling Zanu PF party.

At the heart of this political mortal combat are two longtime allies turned rivals, 82-year-old President Emmerson Mnangagwa and his 68-year-old Vice President, Rt. General, Constantino Chiwenga.

Their history is one of a symbiotic relationship, forged in negating the treacherous landscape of Zimbabwe’s securocratic state and a deeply fractured ruling party.

More than just political comrades, these two have long operated as a notorious tag team, widely seen as the masterminds behind the brutal securocratic deep state.

Since 1980, this shadowy force has been regarded as the true power sustaining Zanu PF’s rule and behind some very dark episodes of human rights abuses.

Now, the dangerous Game of Thrones unfolding between them threatens to unravel the very machinery they once controlled together and risk throwing the country into the abyss.

In this piece I look at the brief, and notorious relationship of the two belligerents, the political events which has led them to this situation and hazard why it is a deeply concerning development.

A history of pre-emptive coups

Mnangagwa and Chiwenga have been intricately involved in Zimbabwean politics, particularly from the turn of the century, when Zanu PF’s grip on power faced its most serious challenge from the formidable opposition, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).

At the time, Mnangagwa played multiple roles within Zanu PF and the state’s security apparatus, ensuring frequent interactions with Chiwenga. However, their infamy would be cemented during two critical moments in Zimbabwe’s political history: the 2002 presidential election and the 2008 general election.

In 2002, then-Army Commander Vitalis Zvinavashe famously declared that Zimbabwe’s presidency was a “straitjacket” reserved exclusively for those with liberation war credentials. When Chiwenga later succeeded Zvinavashe as the country’s top soldier, he echoed the same hardline stance.

That year, Chiwenga was an integral part of the military elite that orchestrated a widespread campaign of violence and intimidation across rural areas. This brutal crackdown amounted to a pre-emptive coup against MDC candidate Morgan Tsvangirai, ensuring that the election outcome was predetermined.

The extent of the rigging and repression was so blatant that even the South African observer mission, led by Justice Sisi Khampepe, refused to give it legitimacy, concluding that the election “cannot be described as free and fair.”

Perhaps the most notorious chapter in Mnangagwa and Chiwenga’s history came during the 2008 general election, when Zanu PF and its presidential candidate, Robert Mugabe, suffered a humiliating defeat at the ballot box.

While it is not publicly recorded, credible reports suggest that Mugabe was prepared to step down after the March 29, 2008, election and concede to Morgan Tsvangirai. But Mnangagwa and Chiwenga had other plans.

The duo convinced Mugabe not to concede, instead orchestrating yet another pre-emptive coup, this time by manufacturing a political crisis to justify a runoff election.

What followed was one of the darkest periods in Zimbabwe’s electoral history. The runoff became a bloodbath, with Chiwenga, then the army commander, flying across the country in military helicopters, openly campaigning for Mugabe and issuing chilling threats of war should he lose.

In the end, the election was a complete charade. After months of political deadlock and a regional intervention led by SADC, Zimbabwe was forced into a power-sharing agreement.

But Mnangagwa and Chiwenga used the 2009–2013 coalition period not as a compromise, but as an opportunity to rebuild Zanu PF’s electoral machinery. By the time the next election came around in 2013, the opposition was decimated, and Zanu PF emerged more dominant than ever.

The 2017 coup

With the opposition effectively buried after its crushing electoral defeat, Mnangagwa and his erstwhile ally turned their sights on Mugabe’s succession. First, they outmanoeuvred Mugabe’s then-second-in-command, Joyce Mujuru, and her faction before setting their sights on Mugabe himself.

Months of intense political bickering and factional infighting within the government and ruling party culminated in Mugabe firing Mnangagwa as Vice President. But if Mugabe thought he had won the power struggle, he had another thing coming.

Within days, Chiwenga, in a thinly veiled threat, declared that the military would “step in”, and step in they did. What followed was an all-out military coup, later whitewashed as a “military-assisted transition” through mass protests mobilised by the opposition. Under immense pressure from all fronts, Mugabe resigned on November 21, 2017. Mnangagwa, who had briefly fled into exile, returned triumphantly and was sworn in as President on November 24, 2017.

At the time, political whispers suggested that there was a gentleman’s agreement between Mnangagwa and Chiwenga, the real coup mastermind, that Mnangagwa would serve only one term before handing over the reins.

However, after securing a contested victory in the 2018 elections, an election marred by military intervention, which saw six civilians gunned down in broad daylight, Mnangagwa showed no intention of stepping aside. Instead, he sought another term in the equally disputed 2023 election.

Between these two elections, Mnangagwa carefully fortified his grip on power.

He systematically restructured the military, took proactive steps to “coup-proof” his regime, and surrounded himself with loyalists. Emboldened by his own political manoeuvring, he and his inner circle then began floating the idea of extending his rule beyond the constitutional two-term limit.

It seems this was the final straw for Chiwenga. The former soldier, perhaps realizing he had been outplayed, has now woken up to the bitter reality, his long-held ambition of sitting in the highest office in the land may never come to pass.

Escalations – will we be a Sudan?

Since January 2025, political ructions within Zanu PF and various state security arms have continued to fester.

Chiwenga has launched open attacks on rent-seekers and tenderpreneurs closely linked to Mnangagwa, while Mnangagwa’s allies have responded in kind, publicly calling for Chiwenga’s expulsion from the ruling party.

The purge has already begun, several of Chiwenga’s loyalists have been expelled from Zanu PF or strategically removed from key security structures. The most significant casualty so far has been the reassignment of Zimbabwe National Army commander, now retired, General Anselmo Sanyatwe.

The most vocal figure from Chiwenga’s faction has been Blessed Geza, who called for protests on March 31, 2025. While the demonstrations failed to gain the anticipated momentum, the writing is on the wall, tensions are escalating at an alarming rate, threatening to spiral out of control.

Both Mnangagwa and Chiwenga are hardliners with deeply entrenched loyalties in the military.

If the situation reaches breaking point, it is not far-fetched to imagine a scenario akin to Sudan, where two powerful generals, who once collaborated to topple longtime dictator Omar al-Bashir, turned on each other, plunging the country into a devastating civil war and one of the worst humanitarian crises in recent history.

This is a real and imminent threat that regional bodies and all those concerned about Zimbabwe’s democratic future must take seriously. The country could be teetering on the brink of a bloody internal conflict.

For Chiwenga, a man who once declared that his bond with Mnangagwa was “solidified by blood”, the moment of reckoning may have arrived, and this time, it could mean literal bloodshed.

There is no love lost between these two warring behemoths of Zanu PF. Their fight is not about ideology, reform, or the plight of the long-suffering masses; it is a ruthless battle over ego, power, and wealth accumulation.

And as history has shown, when thieves fall out, it is always the people who pay the heaviest price.

Pride Mkono is a political strategist and social justice activist. He writes here in his own capacity and can be contacted on [email protected]