Emmerson Mnangagwa now goes after exiled Robert Mugabe allies
Former Zimbabwean Higher and Tertiary Education minister Jonathan Moyo.
Zimbabwe President Emmerson Mnangagwa is on a mission: pursuing his predecessor Robert Mugabe’s allies across the continent as he solidifies his rule.
The ruling Zanu-PF will hold its elective congress in December amid indications that Mnangagwa will be challenged by Mugabe loyalists.
The 79-year-old former security chief is apprehensive about the role being played by exiled ex-ministers in widening fissures in the ruling party.
Analysts say a Zanu-PF leadership change is the only viable option for the exiled heavyweights to return home and rescue their abandoned businesses.
Cabinet ministers that were perceived to be loyal to Mugabe, who died in Singapore in September 2019, fled to South Africa, Mozambique, Kenya and other countries as soldiers bayed for their blood.
To justify the November 2017 coup, the military said it was pursuing “criminals that surrounded” the then 93-year-old ruler. Only one former minister has been jailed for corruption.
Zimbabwe President Emmerson Mnangagwa salutes provincial leaders and other party delegates during the Zimbabwe African National Union Patriotic Front annual people's conference in Goromonzi, on December 13, 2019.
Ex-Energy Minister Samuel Udenge got a 36-month prison term in 2018, only to be freed in a presidential amnesty last year, suggesting that the real targets of the arrests that followed the coup were Mugabe loyalists.
President Mnangagwa flew to Kenya in March and tried to convince his colleague Uhuru Kenyatta to extradite former Higher Education Minister Jonathan Moyo, who now lives in Nairobi.
Moyo was a strategist for Zanu-PF party, with many considering him the brains behind a faction that successfully pushed Mnangagwa out before the coup. The exiled professor is married to a Kenyan.
Mnangagwa previously attempted to use Interpol to have him returned to Zimbabwe and face corruption charges.
Moyo says the charges were concocted to justify the coup, adding that his life would be in danger if goes back home.
President Kenyatta was expected to officially open Zimbabwe’s largest trade fair in Bulawayo in April. However, the tour was put off following the death of ex-Kenyan president Mwai Kibaki on April 22.
Zimbabwean government insiders say another attempt would be made to convince the Kenyan leader to extradite Moyo as Mnangagwa believes the political scientist is one of the biggest threats to his administration.
“The president is not comfortable with Moyo remaining free in Kenya where he advises the opposition in Zimbabwe on election strategies. Mnangagwa believes his position can only be secure when the professor is in jail back home,” a government official told the Saturday Nation.
“Many avenues have been explored, including using state security agents to trail him.”
Suspected state agents once breached security at Moyo’s residence in Nairobi and took pictures of him from CCTV cameras before sharing them on social media.
“They are trailing him everywhere he goes. The sharing of photos on social media was meant to show that they can get him any time,” the insider added.
Back home, the government has been targeting Moyo’s properties for seizure.
Zimbabwe's President Emmerson Mnangagwa speaks during the Defence Forces Day celebrations held at the National Sports Stadium in Harare on August 14, 2018.
Moyo’s farm near Harare was given out to soldiers by the government even after the Supreme Court said the move was illegal.
Mnangawa is also said to be apprehensive about the activities of Saviour Kasukuwere, another ex-ally of Mugabe who is exiled in South Africa.
There are reports of Kasukuwere plotting to go for Zanu-PF leadership ahead of the general election next year.
Kasukuwere was the last Zanu-PF political commissar under Mugabe. He was once touted as a future president.
Soldiers sprayed his Harare mansion with bullets on the night of the coup.
He was arrested after returning home for elections in 2018.
Kasukuwere went back to South Africa after being freed by the court, but has hinted at returning to Zimbabwe e.
In court papers, Zanu-PF accused the former local government minister of sponsoring a case by a ruling party member who is challenging Mnangagwa’s legitimacy.
Kasukuwere says he is not afraid of being arrested and is determined to lead Zanu-PF.
“I believe Zanu-PF will do what it does to survive internal and external threats,” he said recently.
“Arrest is not to be feared if you are a revolutionary, if you stand for what you believe in and if you have the mandate of the people.”
Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa (left) and his wife, First-lady Auxillia after he was officially sworn-in during a ceremony in Harare on November 24, 2017.
He says President Mnangagwa, Mugabe, former Vice-President Joshua Nkomo, Nelson Mandela and many others spent years in prison.
“My arrest would confirm what we have been saying all along – that Mnangagwa is afraid of losing power to the most effective political commissar the party has ever known,” he said.
Mnangagwa enjoys the support of Vice-President Constantino Chiwenga.
Retired General Chiwenga led the 2017 coup as he was commander of the Zimbabwe e Defence Forces. He refused to take power, according to Mugabe.
The army, Mugabe said, called in Mnangagwa, who was in exile in South Africa after being dismissed as vice-president shortly before the military takeover.
Zanu-PF spokesman Christopher Mutsvangwa says Kasukuwere and other exiled members of the pro-Mugabe faction that was known as G40 would not be allowed back into the ruling party.
“The party and home of the Zimbabwe revolution has noticed the attempt at grandstanding by an exiled G40 figure, who goes by the name Kasukuwere,” Mutsvangwa said.
“He is in self-styled, self-imposed exile. Kasukuwere seeks to smuggle and snuggle back into political relevance the ongoing and unfolding drama of the glorious Zimbabwe revolution led by President Mnangagwa, the first secretary of the ruling Zanu-PF.”
He added that three years of exile “after his spectacular fall from political grace” have taken a toll on the G40 “kingpin”.
“Out of touch with the political realities of Zimbabwe, he now seeks relevance through moonlighters and pretenders,” Mutsvangwa said.
In 2019, Zanu-PF and South Africa’s ruling ANC clashed over that country’s decision to give Mugabe’s allies sanctuary.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa sent a delegation to Zimbabwe to douse fires after senior ANC leaders attacked Mnangagwa’s government.
Besides Moyo and Kasukuwere, President Mnangagwa is also be worried about the influence of Patrick Zhuwao, also exiled in South Africa.
He is Mugabe’s nephew and former Youth minister.
Zhuwao has been vocal about attempts to exhume his uncle’s remains for reburial at a shrine for veterans in Harare.
Walter Mzembi, Zimbabwe’s last foreign affairs minister under Mugabe, has been giving Mnangagwa sleepless nights from his hideout in South Africa.
He is regularly given platforms by the South African media to speak about his uncle’s legacy.
To neutralise the coalition of exiles, Zanu-PF has been quietly readmitting Mugabe’s exiled loyalists.
Patrick Hove, a Harare-based commentator, says more will be drawn back to the ruling party because of its patronage system.
“The threat posed by G40 or those who felt aggrieved by Mugabe’s overthrow remains for current leaders. There will always be attempts to weaken them,” Hove said.
“The new administration tried to squeeze those who did not flee the country economically by targeting their businesses and taking their land away. Many are begging to return to Zanu-PF.”
He adds that the ruling party uses divide-and-rule tactics by treating those who fled differently from the ones in Zimbabwe e .
“The reason is to stop them from uniting to challenge the status quo. However, it is inevitable that a coalition of the wounded, led by the likes of Kasukuwere will seek to regain what they lost at the Zanu-PF congress,” Hove said.
Mnangagwa was a protégé and confidante of Mugabe through the latter’s 37 years in power, but their relations soured in the months leading to the coup.
