ZANU PF will use its annual conference next week to formally endorse an extension of President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s tenure, with the party leadership insisting there is “united” support for him across all structures despite internal tensions.
The decision follows a controversial resolution passed last year to extend Mnangagwa’s rule to 2030, a move that has deepened divisions within the ruling party.
Factional strains have recently played out in tense Politburo meetings, including one last month where Vice-President Constantino Chiwenga reportedly tabled a dossier accusing some of Mnangagwa’s closest allies of grand corruption.
However, Zanu PF spokesperson Christopher Mutsvangwa told the Zimbabwe Independent that the party remains firmly behind the president.
“The organs, the provinces and the party membership are quite happy with His Excellency’s stewardship of the party and membership,” Mutsvangwa said.
“Their dictum is: ‘If it ain’t broke, why try to fix it?’ The delegates have expressly and vehemently resolved to continue with His Excellency till 2030. They have drowned out other noises of unbridled, undeserving and self-centred ambition.”
He said the party would use the conference to demonstrate unity and silence talk of factionalism.
“The cacophony of social media trolling has no resonance in the closed membership of the organs, provinces and membership of Zanu PF,” he added, dismissing the criticism as coming from “detractors, regime change practitioners and agents of political destabilisation”.
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The conference will run from next week Friday to October 18 at the Mutare Polytechnic Pavilion Grounds, preceded by politburo and central committee sessions in Harare. About 4 000 delegates are expected to attend, including foreign guests, down from nearly 7 000 participants in previous years.
This year’s event will be held under the theme “Attainment of Vision 2030 Through Economic Empowerment and Value Addition”.
On corruption allegations within the party, Mutsvangwa said Zanu PF respected the separation of powers and would not interfere in legal or executive processes.
“The party drafted, sponsored and passed statutory provisions that handle corruption issues. Being highly constitutional, the party will not stray into executive and legal domains in contravention of the constitution,” he said.
“As party spokesperson, I am yet to receive any formal letters of central committee appointments of candidates. Beyond this, everything else is in the realm of speculation and hearsay.”
Zanu PF’s director of information and publicity, Farai Marapira, also moved to dismiss talk of succession battles, saying the issue was not on the conference agenda.
“To educate the generality of Zimbabweans, succession is dealt with at congress. We are not going to congress; we have congress in 2027. We are going to a conference,” Marapira said.
“The issue of succession is not a concern within Zanu PF ... We will not allow a conversation to be imported into the party. We are going to a conference to continue with checking up on the mandate which we received from the people in 2023.”
He added that the gathering would focus on economic issues and policies to improve Zimbabwe’s growth prospects.
“We all know that the issue is the economy. The people of Zimbabwe voted for President Mnangagwa so that he could continue taking Zimbabwe on a positive economic trajectory, and this is what we will be focused on,” he said.
“Resolution No. 1 actually speaks to the fact that succession is not yet a conversation because it speaks to the perpetuation of the current. You cannot perpetuate the current and talk of succession at the same time.”
