VICE-PRESIDENT Constantino Chiwenga seemingly “hit” back at Zanu PF spokesperson Christopher Mutsvangwa during the Defence Forces Day commemorations at Rufaro Stadium in the capital on Tuesday this week, with the former army boss refusing to shake hands with the ex-minister.
There have been reports of bad blood between the two and tension filled the air at Rufaro Stadium as the former army general avoided a handshake with the war veterans leader.
Chiwenga walked past Mutsvangwa and greeted his wife, Monica, who is the Women’s Affairs minister.
Contacted for comment yesterday, Mutsvangwa directed all the questions to the party’s director for information Farai Marapira.
Marapira yesterday said the narrative of the incident at Rufaro was a creation of social media.
He said there was no bad blood between the Chiwenga and Mutsvangwa.
“Contrary to defect narration on social media, Vice-President Constantino Chiwenga and comrade Christopher Mutsvangwa greeted quite warmly and any talk of tensions or animosity are simply the creation of social media,” he said.
However, political analyst Tendai Ruben Mbofana yesterday said Zanu PF factional fights would explode anytime soon.
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“What we are seeing is just a tip of an iceberg. These factional fights are set to explode anytime very soon because it is not normal for a party spokesperson to attack a whole vice-president in the Press and on whose instruction,” he said.
Mutsvangwa has made headlines in attacks that appear to be targeted at Chiwenga amid reports that the former army general is tipped to replace President Emmerson Mnangagwa when his second five-year term ends in 2028.
“If you think you’re worth it, go and sell yourself to the people. If you clamour for anointment by the President, it means you have failed the litmus test of being a Zanu PF leader,” Mutsvangwa told our sister paper The Standard about three weeks ago.
“Zanu PF is not a secret society and there is no secret agreement on succession. People are going to vote their leaders from the grassroots level . . . Some of us were very involved in this thing in 2017. We know where the allegiances of each and every person lay at that particular time but we don’t mention it.”
Added Mutsvangwa in The Standard interview: “Everyone who goes into politics and has ambitions to be a leader must play by the rules, especially of a revolutionary democratic party.
“Zanu PF is not Makandiwa’s church where he can have himself, his wife and his kids and his followers and say this is my church. President Mnangagwa is an elected leader of a revolutionary democratic party, there is no godly anointment in Zanu PF.”
Mutsvangwa said even if Mnangagwa were to endorse Chiwenga as his successor, this would be resisted.
“You want to become a leader by induction, like a magnet saying ‘because I am a piece of iron I must also be magnetised by the President?’ Even if the President said there is a secret agreement, we would censure him,” Mutsvangwa said.
In May this year, Mutsvangwa accused Chiwenga of allegedly being behind the arrest and detention of his son, Neville, on charges of illegal foreign currency trading.
Mutsvangwa claimed Chiwenga was allegedly behind the move which he said was aimed at driving a wedge between him and Mnangagwa.
Mnangagwa has twice indicated that he has no plans to extend his constitutionally mandated two terms when they come to an end, as party organs, fronted by various factions in the war veterans’ league, clashed over his future.
The youth league has, instead, come out in the open urging Mnangagwa to violate the Constitution, with various Zanu PF provincial structures calling for the extension of Mnangagwa’s reign beyond 2028.
“I have done my first five years and we went to congress and I was re-elected to lead for another five years. This is my last five years, which will end soon and then I go and rest,” Mnangagwa added.
Since Mnangagwa came to power in November 2017 following a military coup that toppled the late strongman Robert Mugabe, his loyalists have been leading a campaign to extend his rule beyond 2028.
During an interface meeting between Mnangagwa and the youths, Chiwengwa rebuked the party’s youth league provincial leadership for chanting the 2030 Vanenge Vachimo slogan, meaning Mnangagwa will still be in power.
