Mnangagwa, Chiwenga in knuckle-bare showdown

By Brighton Mutebuka

ED’s showdown with Chiwenga has finally arrived! The battlelines have now finally been drawn.

 

The only plausible explanation is that Chinamasa was directed by ED to issue a new circular / legal brief to circumvent Obert Mpofu’s earlier circular & Chiwenga’s directive for Tagwirei to be expelled from the Central Committee meeting citing procedural irregularities in his attempted elevation.

 

What this suggests is that ED is daring Chiwenga to meet him “head on” so to speak – meaning he is now ready for a showdown.

 

There is now no middle ground.

 

This is political theatre at the highest levels. The two titans are now transitioning from shadow boxing via proxies to open warfare on the plains as the fight for the “crown” enters a critical stage.

 

The key battleground will now be symbolically over the “revised circular” and it’s provenance, yet the real battle is over who takes over! What we can learn from this is that ZANU PF’s senior leadership is split down the middle, fragmented into factions.

 

Evidently, Mpofu is in Chiwenga’s corner, while Chinamasa & Machacha are in ED’s corner.

 

The political fundamentals are in Chiwenga’s favour, while ED has got a war chest & the power of incumbency.

 

ED tried to pre-empt the military factor through the putative reassignments that were made in the military leadership. What is unclear is whether or not that was sufficient to contain Chiwenga.

 

We are about to find that out as we have now reached the penultimate stage. It’s now or never for Chiwenga!

 

*Brighton Mutebuka is a Zimbabwean lawyer and political commentator based in the UK