Mnangagwa’s 2030 plan opens fresh Zanu PF battle as Chiwenga succession hopes face delay
Zanu PF has opened a new front in its long-running succession struggle after the party’s Harare province backed a plan to postpone the next national congress and endorsed President Emmerson Mnangagwa to remain at the helm until 2030.
The resolution, adopted at an inter-district meeting in Harare, calls for the National People’s Congress due in 2027 to be moved to 2030. It also names Mnangagwa as the province’s preferred candidate for First Secretary and President of Zanu PF at that delayed congress, placing the party’s internal timetable firmly at the centre of the fight over who will eventually succeed him.
Godwills Masimirembwa, the Zanu PF Harare provincial chairman and a close ally of the President, said the province had made its position clear.
“We have resolved that until the next congress he remains President and First Secretary of the party and at that congress he will be our nominee as party leader,” Masimirembwa said at the meeting.
The move gives renewed political weight to a proposal that has been gathering support in provincial structures across the country. Resolutions from the provinces are expected to go before Zanu PF’s annual National People’s Conference in Chinhoyi, where the party will consider whether its internal constitution should be aligned with the country’s amended constitutional framework.
The dispute comes after the passage of Constitution Amendment Act No. 3, which changed the national electoral cycle from five years to seven. The amendment was approved by Parliament after a decisive vote in the National Assembly and later received overwhelming backing in the Senate. It provides for longer terms for the President and Parliament and changes the method of choosing the President by allowing Parliament to elect the head of state rather than relying on a direct popular vote.
The national changes have been presented by Zanu PF as a move towards constitutional alignment and institutional continuity. Within the party, however, they have become bound up with Mnangagwa’s future and the succession ambitions of Vice-President Constantino Chiwenga, the former army commander who played a central role in the 2017 removal of Robert Mugabe.
Under the previous timetable, Mnangagwa was due to complete his second term in 2028. The seven-year electoral cycle shifts the next general election to 2030 and allows his allies to argue that the party and the country should follow the same timetable. The Harare province resolution now seeks to carry that argument into Zanu PF’s own structures by keeping Mnangagwa as party leader until the next congress.
Supporters say this would prevent a gap between the national presidency and the leadership of the ruling party. Rashweat Mukundu, a political analyst, said the party had little choice but to bring its internal electoral arrangements into line with the amended Constitution.
“It only makes sense that whoever is the party candidate has both the national and party mandate over a given time,” Mukundu said.
He said opponents of changing the party constitution should have objected before the passage of Constitution Amendment Bill No. 3.
“As things stand, the horse has bolted from the stables,” he said.
The proposal has also attracted sharp criticism from within and outside the party. Critics argue that a provincial resolution cannot alter the tenure of a party leader or postpone an elective congress without approval from the congress itself, which is Zanu PF’s highest decision-making body.
A source opposed to the plan said the party’s constitution required leadership changes to be settled at congress rather than through administrative bodies.
“The leader is selected at congress, but Mnangagwa’s term now ends in 2030, according to CAA3, yet the party has not ratified that change,” the source said.
“The change should be done by congress, but a section of Zanu-PF wants to push the congress to 2029 using the central committee, which is against the provisions of the party constitution.”
Another source alleged that provincial structures were being mobilised to support the postponement and claimed that money was being used to influence resolutions.
“The loyalists are buying provincial structures to move a motion that congress be moved to 2030. Provinces have since started making such resolutions,” the source said.
The source later added: “How are they going to do so without a congress resolution? They want to use the politburo and then the central committee to supplant congress and adopt the resolution.”
“This is against the party constitution. Such a decision needs a congress. Money is changing hands to move the congress to 2029.”
Zanu PF has rejected the suggestion that the provincial process is irregular. Farai Marapira, the party’s director of information, said provinces were entitled to prepare resolutions for consideration by higher party organs.
“What the provinces are doing is in order as they will forward them to the annual people’s conference for consideration. As of now, it’s not a party position,” Marapira said.
“If it is deliberated and passed at the annual conference, that’s when it becomes a party position.”
He said provincial structures had a constitutional right to pass resolutions for consideration by the National People’s Conference and other party bodies.
Ruben Mbofana, a political commentator, warned that the proposed arrangement could weaken the role of congress by allowing lower or executive structures to decide questions that affect the party’s leadership cycle.
“Relying on lower or administrative bodies, such as the central committee or provincial executive councils, to alter these timelines risks weakening internal party democracy by concentrating constitutional powers within executive structures,” Mbofana said.
He said changing the timing of elections without direct authority from congress could create a precedent for repeatedly adjusting party rules to protect an incumbent. Mbofana described the proposal as a “factional management strategy”, saying that postponing congress could reduce immediate pressure on the leadership while closing the space for those seeking to contest the succession.
The constitutional amendment has generated a wider campaign of opposition. Opposition politicians, churches, trade unions, war veterans and Zanu PF dissidents have criticised the changes, while legal challenges have been brought against the process. Human rights organisations have also reported intimidation, arrests and assaults involving people who opposed the amendment.
The amendment has been described by critics as an attempt to use constitutional machinery to prolong the President’s control of the state and the ruling party. Government and Zanu PF supporters have defended it as a lawful reform that creates a single electoral cycle and supports the country’s development timetable.
The competing positions have exposed a basic conflict inside Zanu PF. Mnangagwa’s allies want the party’s structures to reflect the new national timetable, while opponents fear that moving the congress will postpone the succession contest and leave the President’s camp in control of the machinery that will decide it.
That contest has its roots in the events of 2017, when Chiwenga, then commander of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces, helped remove Mugabe after a bitter struggle involving factions around Mnangagwa and the G40 group associated with Grace Mugabe. Mnangagwa returned from exile to become President, with Chiwenga later becoming his deputy.
The latest Harare resolution gives Mnangagwa’s supporters a clear organisational advantage. If other provinces adopt similar positions and the National People’s Conference endorses them, the party will be under pressure to amend its internal rules and keep the current leadership in place until 2030.
For Chiwenga, the delay would push the succession battle further into the future while leaving Mnangagwa’s political network in charge of the party’s provincial, central and national structures. It would also require the Vice-President’s supporters to fight not only for the eventual leadership but for the timing and rules under which that contest takes place.
The immediate test will come at the Chinhoyi conference, where the provincial resolutions are expected to be debated. The outcome will show whether the 2030 plan remains a Harare initiative or becomes the formal position of Zanu PF. Until then, the party’s internal battle is likely to continue through provincial meetings, constitutional arguments and competing efforts to define who has the authority to determine Mnangagwa’s final political timetable.
