HARARE – Zanu PF youth league political commissar Taurai Kandishaya has slammed Christopher Mutsvangwa over the party spokesperson’s recent claims Vice President Constantino Chiwenga was not ordained successor to President Emmerson Mnangagwa.
Mutsvangwa was weekend quoted in the media dismissing common believe that Chiwenga is the presumptive successor to Mnangagwa, who completes his second and final term in 2028.
Chiwenga, then military general, led the famous coup against late former President Robert Mugabe in 2017 with wide beliefs the two had reached a pact that would allow Chiwenga to succeed Mnangagwa.
Mnangagwa said recently that he will not seek a third term and was planning to “go and rest” at the completion of his term.
He did not mention if he had a preferred successor.
Mutsvangwa said Zanu PF is “not a church where people can be anointed, and the president is not the Pope or the Archbishop of Canterbury who anoint priests”.
He added, “If you think you’re worth it, go and sell yourself to the people. If you clamour for anointment by the president, it means you have failed the litmus test of being a Zanu PF leader.”
The outspoken politician also said “Zanu PF is not a secret society and there is no secret agreement on succession. People are going to vote their leaders from the grassroots level”, adding that Mnangagwa does not have the power to unilaterally endorse a preferred candidate to succeed him.
His comments have elicited fury within the Zanu PF youth league which see the senior politician as acting out of sync with the ruling party’s code of conduct.
“We don’t discuss succession with the media in Zanu PF; there are laid down procedures,” Kandishaya said in interviews with the state broadcaster, ZBC on Tuesday.
“Infact, in Zanu PF, almost everything that we do is procedural; we have the constitution of the party, we have a code of conduct and we have the ideology of Zanu PF.
“So everything that is done in Zanu PF must be found within the four corners of the ideology; the ideology is then supported by the constitution of the party.
“So, this is not an issue where one can just be seen or heard out there discussing about it. That’s unprocedural.”
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