Is Mnangagwa already running the country?
Politics

Is Mnangagwa already running the country?

A South African-based researcher and lawyer Derek Matyszak says it is difficult to tell who is actually running the government of Zimbabwe as many of the decisions are now being made by the Office of the President and Cabinet which is run by a relative of Vice-President Emmerson Mnangagwa.

“Mugabe appears so frail that it doesn’t’ look like he can juggle between intricate manoeuvres needed to keep things in keel,” Matyszak told a seminar in Pretoria this last week which was entitled:  Is Zimbabwe any closer to regime change?

The secretary to the President and Cabinet is Misheck Sibanda.

“They claim to be passing on Mugabe’s instructions, but actually they are passing on their own instructions,” Matyszak said.

Some people have questioned some of the decisions ostensibly made by Mugabe lately because they only expose him and the First Lady as too nepotistic.

One of the appointments was that of Simba Chikore, husband of Bona, Mugabe’s only daughter and eldest child, as chief operating officer of the troubled national Air Zimbabwe.

One observer said Chikore is set for failure no matter how good he might have been as a pilot and this will only make the First family look like they are trying to create a family dynasty.

A lot of people were also baffled by the appointment of Bona to the Censorship Board, as it looked like she was going to be the gatekeeper of the family secrets yet she knows more about money than the media.

Matyszak said it appeared that Mugabe, Grace and Mnangagwa had reached a deal where Mnangagwa would succeed Mugabe but protect the First Lady.

He said this probably explained why the Women’s League, which the First Lady leads, had suddenly become quiet about reserving one of the vice-presidents’ post for a woman.

Mnangagwa, he said, was now literally running the country and was helped by the State media which no longer hid Mugabe’s fraility.

Former Finance Minister Tendai Biti, who is now the leader of the People’s Democratic Party, has accused the First Lady and ZANU-PF of being cruel to Mugabe.

He told a South African news agency that they should be held accountable for the “ill-treatment of the elderly”….. I repeat there are very, very cruel. They should just let the old man go home and rest, they should let him go and play with his grand-son Simba (the son of Mugabe’s daughter Bona).”

If Mnangagwa is literally running the country, this would not be the first time that he is doing so.

The United States embassy in Harare declared him the de facto President during the period between the March 2008 elections and the presidential elections run-off of June 2008.

Mnangagwa even represented Zimbabwe at the special Southern African Development Community special summit in Lusaka yet the country had two active Vice-Presidents at the time, Joice Mujuru and John Nkomo, yet he was merely the Minister of Rural Housing.-Insider

1 Comment

  • Fogmaster 30/05/2017

    Ngwena is ok. Better than mBiti.

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