HARARE – South African President Cyril Ramaphosa flew to Zimbabwe on Sunday in an unannounced visit to warn his counterpart Emmerson Mnangagwa that plans to amend the constitution and extend the presidential term risk destabilising the country, ZimLive has learnt.
The visit, which was not flagged in advance by either Pretoria or Harare, began with Ramaphosa landing in the capital before boarding a helicopter with Mnangagwa for the Zimbabwean leader’s farm in Kwekwe, where the two toured maize fields, inspected cattle operations and stocked a dam with fish.
But the trip was far more than an agricultural excursion.
Joining the two leaders on the helicopter flight to Kwekwe was a coterie of businessmen whose fortunes are closely tied to state patronage – Wicknell Chivayo, Kudakwashe Tagwirei and Paul Tungwarara, all of whom have collected hundreds of millions of dollars in government contracts and have faced accusations by Vice President Constantino Chiwenga of “capturing the state.”
The three sat in on the meeting between the two heads of state, an unusual arrangement that underscored the murky intersection of business and power that has come to define Zimbabwean politics under Mnangagwa.
At the heart of Ramaphosa’s mission was the Constitutional Amendment (No. 3) Bill, which parliament is set to vote on in late May. The bill, which has ignited a fierce internal battle inside Zanu PF, would extend the presidential and parliamentary term from five to seven years and replace direct presidential elections with a vote by Members of Parliament sitting as an electoral college, changes which critics say would hollow out democratic accountability.
Chiwenga, a retired army general long considered the most likely successor to Mnangagwa and the man whose military intervention in November 2017 ended Robert Mugabe’s 37-year reign and cleared the path for Mnangagwa’s rise, has refused to back the bill, which would also extend Mnangagwa’s second and final term by two years from 2028 to 2030.
Chiwenga’s opposition is rooted in self-interest as much as principle – the proposed electoral college model would drastically reduce his own chances of ever reaching the presidency with a leader’s financial muscle now seen as a deciding factor. He was notably absent from Sunday’s meeting, as was the second vice president, Kembo Mohadi.
According to sources briefed on the discussions, the businessmen present used the meeting to relay to Ramaphosa that Mnangagwa believes he is living under the shadow of a coup being plotted by Chiwenga – a claim that, if accurate, would represent the most serious fracture yet in the uneasy alliance between the two men who together engineered Zimbabwe’s last political rupture.
Ramaphosa had a domestic calculus of his own. South Africa faces local government elections in November, and any eruption of political instability across the Limpopo risks triggering a fresh wave of Zimbabwean refugees – precisely the kind of development that feeds anti-immigrant sentiment and complicates the electoral fortunes of his African National Congress, which has already seen its support erode significantly in recent years.
“Ramaphosa came to convey South Africa’s profound concern about the threat of a new political crisis in Zimbabwe which would also carry economic consequences,” a diplomatic source briefed on the engagements told ZimLive.
“Pretoria is concerned about what appears to be a build-up to a major fallout between Mnangagwa and Chiwenga whose unpredictable outcome would be felt across the region, especially South Africa.”
The source added: “Even at this late hour, South Africa wonders if Mnangagwa cannot halt the constitutional amendment or delay it for further consultations. The local government elections in November and rising anti-immigrant sentiment are playing on Ramaphosa’s mind, and he doesn’t want to add a refugee influx and political upheaval up north to that list.”
A statement issued by South Africa’s presidency late Sunday made no mention of the substance of the discussions, describing Ramaphosa’s trip only as a “working visit to discuss issues of mutual and bilateral interests.”
It noted that the two countries “maintain a historical, political and dynamic trade relationship,” with South African exports to Zimbabwe reaching approximately US$4.30 billion in 2025.
What Mnangagwa does next remains to be seen, with parliament’s scheduled vote on the bill just weeks away.
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