The decision by former Zanu PF minister Saviour Kasukuwere to run for the presidency has rattled the ruling party as it is a reminder of the unsolved issues since the takeover of power by President Emmerson Mnangagwa in 2017, political analyst and publisher Dr Ibbo Mandaza has said.
Dr Mandaza was speaking on This Morning on Asakhe, a Twitter Space by CITE, Tuesday.
He said Kasukuwere represents a faction of the party that lost power in the 2017 coup, and his contestation may be viewed as a fight back.
The academic noted that the coup was an implosion within the ruling party, a fatal split which called for a possible end to the Zanu-PF regime.
“Mnangagwa is justified to feel uncomfortable by the inclusion of Kasukuwere in this election. If we go back to the coup of 2017, it was essentially an implosion within Zanu-PF itself in which case one faction lost to Mnangangwa’s faction. The ruling party was thus spilt right down in the middle,” Dr Mandaza said.
“Some of us would say it was a fatal split, meaning it was the beginning of the end of the regime. How long it will take to disintegrate we do not know but it marked the end. Secondly, Kasukuwere belongs to that faction which lost in 2017, and I might say that they are fighting back. One mustn’t take it for granted that the faction that lost in 2017 still has a social base in Zimbabwe.”
Dr Mandaza further noted that the 2018 official data from Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) were a reflection that the coup created an ethnic collision within the party hence Mnangagwa lost support in various constituencies.
“Mnangagwa is a person who has never been elected into power before. His victory in 2018 was largely disputed. Even on the basis of the official data on the 2018 elections, he lost in 118 constituencies out of 210. Significantly, Zanu-PF won nine seats in Matabeleland North but he got five percent of that vote. Zanu-PF won 23 out of 26 seats in Manicaland yet he lost in that province. He even lost in Midlands, Shurugwi,” Dr Mandaza said.
“That spectre is bound to be dominant in the minds of people like Mnangagwa himself, knowing that we are very delicately poised in the electoral process. Misfortunes may have increased since 2018 given the talk and allegations of corruption, evident mismanagement of the economy, and evident abuse of human rights. Mnangagwa should know that his chances are less and less. Therefore, the Kasukuwere entry confounds that for him, no doubt about that.”
