President Emmerson Mnangagwa has encountered relationship problems with military generals who are demanding that he should only serve one term.

A report in the weekly independent states that the generals are making decisions overriding Mnangagwa’s own.

The report confirms a leak during the time of Mnangagwa’s ministerial appointments last year December, which saw a document with Oppah Muchinguri’s name going public. That file also revealed by ZimEye.com contained Muchinguri’s acceptance speech as Zimbabwe’s new Vice President. But Zimbabweans were met with shock when it emerged Mnangagwa’s deputy would instead be former Military Commander, Gen. Constantino Chiwenga.

The report reads in part:

Tensions and mistrust are certainly building up in government, although things may appear rosy on the surface. The feeling is that the military clique is making too many demands both in government and the party (Zanu PF).

The military has been so strong that they have veto power in some cases. For instance, Mnangagwa had initially appointed Oppah Muchinguri as one of his deputies, but the military demanded that the position be given to Chiwenga, who also insisted on being in charge of defence.

It was the same case with Victor Matemadanda. He was earmarked to be Zanu PF’s national commissar, but the military demanded that one of the senior commanders secures the post, resulting in Rugeje’s appointment. The military feels that the civilian wing of the party is not competent enough to run the commissariat, hence Rugeje is running it with the assistance of Ministry of Defence officials and the army.

…In addition, Mnangagwa, in reality, does not have control of the army as things stand. The army is still loyal to Chiwenga, who is also effectively Minister of Defence. Chiwenga has been pushing for the army to receive preferential treatment and dominance compared to other security forces and civil servants, and it appears he is winning on that front.