zero chances

Zimbabwe: How Mnangagwa ‘crushed’ Chiwenga’s dream of becoming president

By Farai Shawn Matiashe

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Posted on November 3, 2022 13:36

© President Emmerson Mnangagwa and his deputy Constantino Chiwenga greet supporters of his ZANU PF party at a rally in Murombedzi, Zimbabwe November 24, 2018. REUTERS/Philimon Bulawayo
President Emmerson Mnangagwa and his deputy Constantino Chiwenga greet supporters of his ZANU PF party at a rally in Murombedzi, Zimbabwe November 24, 2018. REUTERS/Philimon Bulawayo

Zimbabwe’s President Emmerson Mnangagwa has outmanoeuvred his deputy Constantino Chiwenga in the fierce battle to be the 2023 presidential candidate for the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (Zanu–PF). At the party’s Elective Congress held from the 26 to 29 October, the Central Committee, the highest decision-making body within the ruling party, endorsed Mnangagwa to seek a second term in next year’s general elections

Zanu PF insiders say that as part of the agreement after the coup, which ousted former leader Robert Mugabe in November 2017, Mnangagwa was meant to step down for Chiwenga, a former commander of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces.

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