Africa-Press – Zimbabwe. POLITICAL opponents and critics believe President Emmerson Mnangagwa has no intention of stepping down from power at the end of his presidential term, saying he will continue exploring ways to extend his stay.
The critics and opponents were speaking during an X Space debate titled Mnangagwa Succession: Is the ED2030 Campaign Dead in the Water? organised by NewsDay on Thursday evening.
Mnangagwa recently said he would not extend his stay, despite a spirited push by loyalists for him to continue in office under the banner “ED2030”.
MDC-T leader Douglas Mwonzora said he believed Mnangagwa made no commitment to step down as President, but only as leader of his party and would want to extend his term even beyond the constitutionally permissible two terms.
“The opinion is that President Mnangagwa said ‘I am not going to run for a third term as Zimbabwean President’. That is not what President Mnangagwa said,” Mwonzora said.
“He said he would not stand again as a Zanu PF president. He did not talk of national presidency and this is where people are being taken for a ride.
“If the President was of the opinion that he was ruling out running for national presidency, he would have said that. It is not necessary that you be a president of a political party to be elected a president of a country.”
Mwonzora’s sentiments were echoed by former Foreign Affairs minister Walter Muzembi, who was forced into exile at the height of the November 2017 military coup that deposed the late former President Robert Mugabe.
Mzembi said Mnangagwa’s pronouncements were forced on him and had not come out of his own good intentions to respect the law.
“Mnangagwa has cleverly punctured the ball, so we are playing a deflated ball all of us, because he has taken the steam out of the debate by announcing that he will abide by the Constitution and depart the stage by 2028,” Mzembi said.
“However, the politics is speaking to a different ball game. Two fundamental questions arise whenever an extension is sought, whether legal or illegal and in this case, unconstitutional.
“You either have been playing the game very well to the enjoyment and satisfaction of your audience which then demands an encore that they want more of you or secondly, you are, as in the game of football, in a deadlock and then extra time determines the end result.”
Mzembi added: “The questions to ask are: Are we enjoying and satisfied with the incumbents tenure to the extent that we seek to extend his term and secondly, does he have unfinished business beyond 2028 meriting an extension?”
However, Zanu PF information director Farai Marapira laughed off the suggestions that Mnangagwa would pull a Houdini act and cling onto power when all guards are down.
He said Zanu PF had grown a culture of internal democracy, led by someone who walked the talk and had taken the ruling party away from its past transgressions.
“My President has spoken not just last week as Mr Mzembi is, unfortunately, saying that he made a U-turn last week.
“He is not interested in a third term. What then happens is that our internal democracy, maybe Mr Mzembi has not seen that Zanu PF has taken a big turn to democracy, people are allowed to speak their minds and we do not punish or chase out people for speaking out their minds even if the President has been saying something different,” Marapira said.
“We are a party in which the President listens and allows people to speak their minds. This must be a new phenomenon to him [Mzembi], because when he had his time, there was no tolerance for people to speak their minds.”
Zimbabweans have had trust issues with the ruling Zanu PF party and remain on guard even after a promise by Mnangagwa that he will respect the Constitution.
In his submissions, political analyst Effie Ncube took note of how the party, which has been at the helm of politics in Zimbabwe for the past 44 years, has a habit of indicating left and turning right.
“First, for Zanu PF, it has never passed on power from one leader to another peacefully, through a congress, while the other leader is still in office. That has never happened since 1980. It is important that they do so,” Ncube said.
“As a country also, we have never done that. It is important that we do so. This is the legacy that will live longer.
“It is important that we learn a new way of doing things, passing power from one to the other peacefully as outlined in the Constitution of Zimbabwe.”
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