HARARE – Zanu-PF has dismissed growing speculation over internal succession battles, declaring that the issue will not form part of the agenda at the party’s upcoming Annual National People’s Conference, which will be held in Mutare from October 10 to 23, 2025.
Speaking to the media, Zanu-PF Director for Information and Publicity, Farai Marapira, said the question of succession was not relevant to the party’s current deliberations and would only be addressed at the next Zanu-PF Congress in 2027, the party’s supreme decision-making body.
“Succession is dealt with at the Congress. We’re not going to Congress, we have Congress in 2027. We are going to a conference, and the issue of succession is not an issue within Zanu-PF,” Marapira said.
He insisted that discussions about who would eventually succeed President Emmerson Mnangagwa were being driven by individuals outside the ruling party.
“If you look at most of the purveyors of this succession issue, they are known not to be members of Zanu-PF. So, as Zanu-PF, we will not allow a conversation to be imported into the party,” he added.
Marapira said the Mutare conference would focus instead on reviewing the party’s 2023 electoral mandate and assessing progress on economic programmes.
ZANU-PF Information and Publicity Director, Cde Farai Marapira, stated that the issue of succession will not be on the agenda at the upcoming ZANU-PF Conference scheduled to take place in Mutare from October 10 to 23, 2025. He clarified that matters concerning succession are… pic.twitter.com/tIwacq4Yyx
— ZANU PF (@ZANUPF_Official) October 6, 2025
“We are going to the conference to continue checking on the mandate we received from the people in 2023. The issue is the economy. The people of Zimbabwe voted for President Mnangagwa so that he could continue taking Zimbabwe on a positive trajectory,” he said.
He further stated that the resolution number one, which seeks to extend Mnangagwa’s leadership beyond 2028 was not about succession but “perpetuation of the current”.
“Resolution Number 1 speaks to the perpetuation of the current. So, you cannot perpetuate the current and talk about succession at the same time,” Marapira said.
He described the relationship between President Mnangagwa and his deputies, Vice Presidents Constantino Chiwenga and Kembo Mohadi, as one of “brotherhood.”
“These are people who have been in the trenches for the independence of Zimbabwe. They faced death and sacrificed for this country to be free.
“So, all this talk of animosity and fighting is just a narrow agenda by other parties hoping to bring alarm and despondency within our rank and file,” he said.
Marapira’s remarks come amid persistent reports of a power struggle between Mnangagwa and Chiwenga over the party’s future leadership. The speculation has continued to grow, particularly as the party moves closer to its 2027 elective congress.
Mnangagwa, whose term of office is supposed to end in 2028, is allegedly sidelining Chiwenga in favour of his ally and businessman Kudakwashe Tagwirei.
Other senior members of the party are also pushing for the amendment of the Constitution to allow Mnangagwa to remain in office until 2030.
Local Government Minister Daniel Garwe, Midlands Provincial Affairs Minister Owen Ncube and Zanu-PF political commissar Munyaradzi Machacha are actively pushing for this, calling it “Agenda 2030”.
