If VP Chiwenga should finally become President it would be by right of conquest and not “by direct popular vote”, as Mapuranga insists. Wilbert Mukori

“General Constantino Chiwenga is the next President of the Republic of Zimbabwe. Not maybe. Not possibly. Not if circumstances permit. Not subject to amendment bills, parliamentary arithmetic, or the preferences of commercial networks that have confused their bank balances with political permanence.” wrote Lieutenant General Winston Sigauke Mapuranga in Bulawayo 24.

“And let me be equally clear about the timeline. 2028. Elections. As scheduled. 

“As constitutionally mandated. As the people of Zimbabwe are entitled to.”

What a truck load of bulls****t! 

“What kind of leaders would an armed struggle throw up?” Mahatma Gandhi and his fellow Indian nationalist asked themselves when they too were presented with the choice os whether to continue with the passive resistance in the fight to end British colonial rule of India. 

This was not an abstract and rhetorical question but one grounded on reality.

Alas! Zimbabwe has given the whole world the worst case scenario text book answer to the rhetoric question “What kind of leaders would an armed struggle throw up?” 

“A year on from the coup that ousted Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe remains perched between piecemeal reform and old ways that are as intractable as they are destructive. That’s because the country is ruled by a clique with a partial and conditional commitment to change—and a total, obdurate determination to retain and enjoy power,” wrote Stuart Duran in ASPI Strategist.

“The ‘new’ regime can be viewed from different angles, but the nub of it is this: there’s a recognition that the economic fiasco of the last 20 years was suboptimal, but Emmerson Mnangagwa and his fellow travellers will burn the house down if they feel it necessary. Make no mistake, their will to power is every bit as intense as Mugabe’s—as is their belief that they own the country’s choicest fruits by right of conquest.”

Lieutenant General Maporanga is right, “CAB3 is not a development instrument. It is not a continuity agenda. It is not about Vision 2030 or boreholes or solar panels or hospital refurbishments worthy as some of those programmes are.CAB3 is a blocking mechanism.”

However he is being totally dishonest in saying the bill “has one primary political function to prevent General Constantino Chiwenga from ascending to the presidency through the direct popular vote that he would win.”

Zimbabwe has never ever held free, fair and credible elections. Never ever! And of all people, Mapuranga knows that. 

The nearest the nation has ever got to holding free and fair elections was the March 2008 elections after SADC had piled the pressure on Zanu PF to carry out a number of electoral reform. When it was clear that Zanu PF was losing the elections it was none other than Mnangagwa and Chiwenga who launched Operation Mavhotera Papi to blatantly cheat in the vote count and use wanton violence in the presidential run-off. Were those the actions of some one who has ever believed in winning the “direct popular vote”?

Mnangagwa and Chiwenga were once again the masterminds behind the 2017 military coup that ousted the late dictator Robert Mugabe after 37 years of rigged elections. The primary purpose of the coup was not to end the curse of rigged elections born of leaders thrown up by the liberation war who believed they have the divine right to rule the nation. The coup was a Zanu PF factional war to settle who was to be the top dog, the dictatorship itself was to remain untouched. 

Mnangagwa and Zanu PF did not win “direct popular vote” in 2018 or 2023; the elections were rigged. Chiwenga and Mapuranga know this!

Mnangagwa and Chiwenga fell out because the former was supposed to serve one five years term and then step aside. He is set to serve ten years and still refusing to step aside. 

The primary purpose of CAB3, as far as Chiwenga and his supporters are concerned, is to engineer a mechanism to allow Mnangagwa to stay in power  two more years beyond 2028. The bill seeks to entrench Zanu PF’s dictatorial strangle hold on the nation and this appeals to many Zanu PF cronies which is why the bill has become so divisive within the party. 

Whether CAB3 passes or not the ordinary Zimbabweans know that they will continue to be denied a meaningful say in the governance of the country. If Chiwenga and his cronies manage to stop CAB3 by hook or by coup, they will not risk losing power by holding free, fair and credible elections. 

So if VP Chiwenga should ever become President it will be “by right of conquest,” as Stuart Duran would rightly say and not “by direct popular vote”, as Singauke Mapuranga would have us believe!