PRESIDENT Emmerson Mnangagwa will today preside over a hastily-convened crunch politburo meeting in the absence of Vice-President Constantino Chiwenga, amid indications that businessman Kudakwashe Tagwirei’s elevation to the central committee will be fast-tracked.
Chiwenga, who is on a State visit to India, blocked Tagwirei’s ascendancy at a recent politburo meeting, the ruling party’s top decision-making body, citing violation of procedures.
The businessman, who is being touted as Mnangagwa’s successor by a faction loyal to the 82-year-old ruler, had attempted to attend the central committee meeting after he was co-opted by Zanu PF’s Harare provincial executive.
Zanu PF secretary for legal affairs Patrick Chinamasa last month posted on X (formerly Twitter) claiming Tagwirei’s co-option was a foregone conclusion, but it has since emerged that the Zanu PF provincial executive led by Godwills Masimirembwa met last weekend and voted unanimously for him to fill a vacancy under Zone 5 in Mabvuku.
Chinamasa’s statement also contradicted Zanu PF spokesperson Christopher Mutsvangwa, who declared that the issue of Tagwirei’s co-option into the central committee was dead in the water as he denounced the use of money to get positions.
Zanu PF sources said today’s meeting was a litmus test for the brewing succession war because of tensions caused by the growing influence of what is now known as the Zvigananda faction, which is seeking to upstage Chiwenga’s group ahead of the ruling party’s congress in 2027.
Mnangagwa’s loyalists are said to be pushing for the ruling party leader to stay in power until 2030 to pave way for a Tagwirei and side-line the former army commander.
At the weekend, Zanu PF affiliates floated the idea of life presidency for Mnangagwa.
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Mnangagwa has, however, repeatedly said he is a constitutionalist and will step aside in 2028 when his term expires.
Chiwenga led the military coup that toppled the late Robert Mugabe eight years ago and had for a long time been considered Mnangagwa’s obvious successor before he spoke out against an influential clique of businessmen surrounding the President.
Today’s meeting was announced through an official memo from Zanu PF’s secretary for administration Obert Mpofu, dated August 25, 2025.
Zanu PF sources said the meeting was a culmination of a weekend of political manoeuvring designed to guarantee Tagwirei’s position in the central committee and to entrench the so-called Zvigananda faction at the heart of Zanu PF.
“There is a mad rush to hold this politburo meeting this Wednesday to sanitise this sham process in the absence of VP Chiwenga,” a politburo member told NewsDay.
“They know Chiwenga and others would block it, so they are trying to exploit his diplomatic absence to force it through.”
The sources said the revived push was planned during a “strategic retreat held in Japan” after Mnangagwa’s trip to Madagascar to hand over the Sadc chairmanship last week.
He was accompanied by his chief secretary Martin Rushwaya.
“The Japan trip was a war council,” the Zanu PF official said.
“They (loyalists) returned with a new playbook and what you are seeing is phase one, capturing the party’s structures entirely for Tagwirei.”
Zanu PF sources said the latest strategy was laid bare at the launch of the Land Tenure Implementation Committee’s title deeds programme in Mazowe on Monday in what they said was essentially a ruling party rally.
At the Mazowe meeting, Mnangagwa spoke glowingly about the project that is targeting over 300 000 new farmers, despite observers criticising it as a looting scheme and reversal of the land reform programme championed by Mugabe at the turn of the millennium.
At the same meeting, Justice minister Ziyambi Ziyambi said Mnangagwa would rule until “Jesus comes”.
Tagwirei said a recipient of title deeds under his committee would be eligible for a US$6 000 interest-free loan, payable over seven years, to purchase an “irrigation kit”.
“Unsuspecting Zimbabweans are being issued with these fake title deeds, and in the process, are being strong-armed into purchasing massively overpriced ‘irrigation kits’ from his companies, disguised as interest-free loans,” the official said.
“It’s a masterpiece of predatory exploitation.”
War veterans have approached the courts to challenge Tagwirei’s “illegal land implementation committee”, but the matter is still to be heard five months on.
Political analyst Mbizvo Jelousy Mawarire told the South African broadcaster SABC that the land implementation committee programme was an attempt to establish freehold land ownership on agricultural land despite clear constitutional provisions placing its ownership in the State.
