By Staff Reporter
Vice President General Constantino Chiwenga electrified the ZANUPF Annual National People’s Conference in Chinhoyi with a bold public challenge to both his party and its leader, thrusting the ruling partyโs internal divisions into the national spotlight.
Standing before an audience of party faithful and senior leaders, Chiwenga did not shy away from invoking the momentous events of 2017. He asked, pointedly, whether the Second Republicโestablished through a military coup to end Robert Mugabeโs decades-long ruleโwas already at risk of repeating the very mistakes that brought about its own birth.
Direct in his approach, Chiwenga confronted the dangers of authoritarianism and exclusion festering within ZANUPF. โAre we not making the very errors that forced us to act in 2017?โ he demanded, daring the partyโs elite to confront uncomfortable truths about their current direction and claim to renewal. His speech, couched as a call for self-examination, was also a veiled warning against repeating a history marred by leaders disconnected from the people they serve.
The vice presidentโs remarks come amid a fierce and public succession battle at the top of Zimbabweโs political hierarchy. President Mnangagwaโs moves to amend the constitution, extend his tenure, and elevate Senator Kudakwashe Tagwirei as a possible successor, have been widely interpreted as a strategy to sideline opponentsโand Chiwenga in particular. This escalating power play recently erupted in party infighting so intense that it derailed a scheduled Politburo meeting, laying bare fractures at the highest levels of ZANUPF.
Through his address, Chiwenga cast the current struggle as a fight between genuine peopleโs power and self-serving elites: between a party loyal to its grassroots and one that risks becoming merely a tool for personal ambition. Political observers warn that the stakes are unprecedented. Whether President Mnangagwa chooses to heed Chiwengaโs challenge or attempts to silence him may ultimately decide not only the fate of Zimbabweโs ruling party, but the course of the nationโs democracy itself.
Chiwengaโs fierce questions now echo far beyond the walls of the conference hall, signaling that both ZANUPFโs futureโand that of Zimbabweโhang in the balance.
