Campaign to Extend Zimbabwean Leader’s Rule Gains Momentum
(Bloomberg) -- Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa has indicated he intends to step down when his second term ends in 2028, but calls are mounting from within the ruling party for him to serve for two more years.
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“People are happy with his leadership and they want him to stay,” Home Affairs Minister Kazembe Kazembe, the chairman of the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front party in the Mashonaland Central province, was quoted by the Sunday Mail newspaper as saying at the weekend.
Officials in the Harare, Bulawayo and Masvingo provinces have also recently been cited by state-owned media outlets as saying they want the 81-year-president’s rule to be extended to 2030. Zanu-PF’s youth and women’s wings have openly backed that position, and slogans of support for Mnangagwa are regularly chanted at party and state events.
Mnangagwa told supporters in the eastern border city of Mutare last month that he won’t seek to stay on as the ruling party’s leader when his current mandate expires.
“This is my last five years, which will end soon,” he said. “My days to rest are fast approaching.”
Mnangagwa took power in 2017 after the military helped toppled long-time ruler Robert Mugabe and won a second term in last year’s elections, the credibility of which was disputed by opposition parties. His tenure has been characterized by economic degradation, mass unemployment, runaway inflation and currency-market upheaval. The southern African nation is currently in the grip of a drought that’s left more than half the rural population confronting food shortages.
Zanu-PF controls sufficient seats in parliament to amend a two-term presidential limit in the constitution, if it decides that the incumbent should stay on, although it hasn’t exercised that power so far. Deputy President Constantino Chiwenga, a former army general, is widely seen as the frontrunner to become Zimbabwe’s next leader, but Mnangagwa has never publicly endorsed him.
The lack of clarity over who will succeed Mnangagwa increases the potential for infighting within the ruling party, with different factions likely to contest the post, according to Robert Besseling, the chief executive officer at advisory firm Pangea-Risk.
“To avoid a fractious succession context, the party is now calling on Mnangagwa to remain in place for an interim period, although this could exacerbate rivalries and trigger more political unrest,” Besseling said.
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