THEY criss-crossed the country, stampeding Zanu PF party supporters to back a resolution for an amendment of the Constitution allowing President Emmerson Mnangagwa to extend his tenure beyond the constitutionally mandated two terms that end in 2028.
The resolution sailed through at the party’s annual people’s conference that ended in Bulawayo on Saturday.
However, the supposed beneficiary, Mnangagwa, disappointed “ardent loyalists” by insisting that he would leave office at the end of his tenure in 2028.
Zanu PF’s legal secretary Patrick Chinamasa told party members attending the annual people’s conference that Mnangagwa had told him that he is not interested in extending his tenure.
Chinamasa met Mnangagwa three times in August, September and last Tuesday, where he got the same response.
The loyalists, coalescing around the ED2030 campaign, had been burning midnight oil pushing for Mnangagwa to extend his tenure beyond 2028 “to complete his vision”.
Provinces such as Midlands and Masvingo and party wings that include Women’s League and a faction of the Youth League had been making calls for the Constitution to be amended.
The calls grew louder in the run up to the conference, even as Mnangagwa had on three occasions stated that he was not interested in prolonging his stay.
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The Bulawayo incident should be a time for reflection for Zanu PF sycophants that wanted to mislead Mnangagwa to violate the clause of Presidential terms he helped to draft in the country’s Constitution.
The ED2030 brigade must dissolve itself and those seen perpetuating that thought brought to book.
A ruling party in which sycophancy supersedes reason will take the economy to the graveyard.
We need a new kind of politics that is issue-based where party members disagree on facts.
The praise-singing, which has found a home in the ruling Zanu PF and the opposition, is an affront to modern politics.
The economy is currently battling a currency hurdle with the six-month-old Zimbabwe Gold stuttering and requiring all hands on deck.
In his closing remarks, Mnangagwa emphasised on the need for a unified leadership and respect of the party’s constitution.
He urged cadres to adhere to “our deeply entrenched party discipline, rules and correct line”. Straying away from the right path can cause fatal mistakes and dire consequences to the liberation movement and the people's revolution, Mnangagwa warned.
By rejecting Zanu PF’s poisoned chalice, Mnangagwa knows too well that those vocal in pushing for the extension of his term were not doing so out of love. Rather, they wanted to continue enjoying the trappings of power.
Mnangagwa has refused to be led down the garden path by the same loyalists that misled the late former President Robert Mugabe that he would rule forever when it was clear he had passed his sell-by date.
By rejecting the 2030 bait, Mnangagwa might have disappointed his followers but salvaged something in terms of reputation. He, like a good dancer, knows when to exit the stage.
