An absent running mate clause in the Constitution is banana skins on the road to State House. Writes Josiah Mucharowana:
Fellow peasants, forget democracy and hear this! President Mnangagwa is a dictator in the making, our very own version of Ugandan Yoweri Museveni set to run for a sixth term of office.
Mnangagwa is hell-bent on making himself an all conquering god by tinkering with the constitution removing the running mate clause.
The scraping of the clause is set for debate in the august house in April.
The clause mandated that the president would be simultaneously elected to office with two deputies. These two subordinates would automatically be elected government officials making it a mammoth task for the President to fire anyone of them.
The forthcoming general election in 2023 should see our constitution without the clause operational as public consultations are penciled in to begin soon.
Mangwana wants all the levers of executive power to himself keeping his two sitting deputies at arms length come re-election season in 2023. Just like Mugabe before him, he wants to reserve the power to appoint deputies of his own choice.
Gazzetting such a move as early as now is amble proof all is not well in Zanu PF with both deputies, the sickly Kembo Mohadi from ZIPRA and the rejuvenated former Army Chief Constantino Chiwenga, ZANLA set to show up their mettle in the face of a daylight onslaught on their ambitions to share power.
Militant deputy President Chiwenga, arguably Zimbabwe’ s foremost kingmaker who put his life on the line dethroning a defiant and dangerous Mugabe in a 2017 November coup as a sitting army general- has been brazen in his approach to politics showing Presidential ambitions.
Incidentally, China, previously held high as Zimbabwe’s all weather friend has been too cosy to Chiwenga giving him VIP medical attention at a top military hospital when death beckoned.
When he came back to Zimbabwe Chiwenga sneaked in at night aboard a Chinese jetliner. He too was met by Chinese Deputy ambassador to Zim, Zhao Baogang. That set tongues wagging. Could he be formenting another coup with the help of the Chinese? Has factionalism gone so bad that a Vice President sneaks into the country looking agile with little pomb and fanfare despite his known ailing health?
And when he went back to China for medical review last week, it was soon announced Chinese Foreign affairs minister would grace Zimbabwean soils in a matter of days. Is it coincidence? Is it a show of normal, warm relations with China?
And now, the President is officially on leave and the grapevine says he cannot skip borders on vacation for fear of being dethroned in his absence.
To many of us with a worm’ s eye view of political theatrics taking place, Chiwenga is on a diplomatic offensive using ill- health as a political alibi.
China because of it’s lifelong history of helping Africa in exchange for minerals and natural resources when the continent engaged in a bitter and protracted war against western imperialists up until the 80s, it surely is seeking a new partner to bed in Zim. And Chiwenga, going by the optics at play is undoubtedly a willing ‘chosen one’.
Munangagwa, a dismal failure within the two years he has taken the power baton from Mugabe will not take it lying down.
An absentee running mate clause in the constitution is set to be the banana skins for either Mohadi or Chiwenga’s road to the Presidency. Whoever should put his hat in the race , would have to side step or skid his way to the throne.
State House is a Herculean task and Munangagwa knows better. For years he lurked in the shadows of Mugabe but could not wrest power until the very last minute he was fired from both government and party positions as second-in- command.
Politically he was bereft, a spent force but because of the benevolence of Chiwenga, the army and most recently the blessings Chief Justice Luke Malaba who ruled in his favour in the previous, hotly contested elections despite the opposition MDC A claiming victory, he is President. Country constitutions are sacred, beloved, revered and embolden a people including generations to come to have a say in the way they are governed.
But the Zim blueprint is under siege to pave way for tin-pot dictators.
The country is on fire. Millions of citizens have given up creature comforts to scrape a living in the diaspora. Neighbouring South Africa has borne the brunt witnessing foreigners trooping in en masse. Reportedly, Beitbridge Border post has witnessed trying days with immigrants reaching as many as 35 000 a day into South Africa.
That alone should be a signal to the leadership the country’s economy needs a complete overhaul.
But Mr President, an owl merely sitting on a tree stump does not exercise chieftanship. Two years is long enough to prove your worth.
Peasants, let’s remember when Munangagwa came in, there was a lot of goodwill across the world. ED was supposed to be a clean break from years of economic failure, human rights abuses, entrenched corruption, media repression and many other ghastly tales under Mugabe’s tenure.
Ordinarily, even political minions with far less his political resume and exposure would have done a better job but he chose to carry forward all Mugabe’s s political diseases even propagating them with enhanced vigour.
We woke up to soldiers spraying hot lead on unarmed citizens protesting an undue delay in election results in the heart of Harare.
And yet still, we are witnessing gangs of machete- wielding artisanal miners terrorising and killing people literally for a song.
We have seen corrupt government chefs snubbing the country’s justice system with reckless abandon.
In addition, we have seen Him, ED wasting scarce taxpayers money going around the world cap in hand for economic bail outs to no avail.
Still more, other loosing opposition politicians have been thrown bait of allowances and all terrain vehicles to come under the banner of POLAD to find a lasting solution to the ailing economy. Zanu PF hopes the move gives credence and respectability to an incompetent administration the region has ever seen.
Preposterously, Zanu PF has already endorsed Munangagwa to stand once again as party presidential candidate in 2023. Given the history of elections in Zimbabwe at the hands of Zanu PF, it is a foregone conclusion nothing better will come out.
Chiwenga must be one restless soul. Removing the running mate clause is tantamount to him being hoist by his own petard. Zanu PF and the army had a pact during the coup that toppled Mugabe. The project was teamwork , now, Munangagwa wants to go alone.
Nonetheless, it is now a matter of when not if the amendment comes through because Zanu PF has a two thirds majority in Parliament. And already, party zealots are hinting on a prolonged stay in power for failing Munangagwa.
The clause will poise Munangagwa as the greatest betrayer of all times in the history of Zanu PF, only comparable to liberation war time Morrison Nyathi who sold out to imperial forces under Ian Smith. Hundreds of liberation fighters including more than 300 ZANLA forces died on that day 9 August 1976 at Nyadzonya, Mozambique.
Zimbabwe’s future currently lies in ED’ s hands. There are a plethora of choices he has for a better Zim chiefly being resignation on grounds of incapacity to lead or to surround himself with clever , astute ,shrewd messengers in the cabinet and key government sectors such as energy, finance , and agriculture.
We have seen the Presidential Advisory Council (PAC) supposedly equipped with technocrats degenerating to a grouping of sychophants, friends and business associates.
Because of their proximity to power, we have seen breaches of the law and conflicts of interests with members like Kudakwashe Tagwirei involved in the energy sector putting the nation at ransom to his wily ways.
Tagwirei is also accruing mining interests across the country when the very same Presidency is lerthagic in response to machete-wielding Mashurugwi, bands of bandits on a campaign of terror invading mines and confisticating gold from small scale artisanal miners.
PAC credibility is in jeopardy. Allegedly, it has a staff complement running into dozens , all the more with cushy packages and salaries drawn from an already strained national fiscus.
When Mugabe fired Munangagwa setting in motion his meteoric rise to power, it was said, he ‘lacked probity’. Today, Zimbabwe is exhibit of his lacklustre leadership.
Signing off the running mate clause can only cement Munangagwa political posture as a heartless dictator, a leech determined to suck the country dry with the help of friends and family. He can do better, Zimbabwean people can be better too.
The least the country needs now is an arrogant leader to tenaciously grab and overshadow national politics for a very longer time.
Josiah Mucharowana is a Zimbabwean trained journalist living in Pretoria.
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