Navigating the Succession Storm: Zanu PF Politburo Meeting Sets Agenda for Crucial Annual Conference

THE 23rd ruling Zanu PF Annual National People’s Conference officially commences today, October 13, with a high-stakes politburo meeting at the party’s headquarters in Harare at 2pm.

Chaired by President Emmerson Mnangagwa, the party’s apex decision-making body, which is the administrative organ of the Zanu PF central committee, meets at 14:00 hours to finalise the agenda for the conference at Chinhoyi University of Technology in Mashonaland West Province.

This year’s indaba runs under the theme: “From Resolutions to Results: Consolidating Economic Development and Deepening Empowerment Towards Vision 2030”.

While the public-facing focus of the conference centres strictly on infrastructure, economic stability, and acceleration of Zimbabwe’s Vision 2030 development goals, undercurrents of the politburo meeting reveal serious political calculations and deep structural manoeuvring around the succession issue and constitutional amendments to align the Zanu PF constitution with the national Supreme Law

An extraordinary politburo meeting to dela with that was cancelled last week on Friday due to internal strife.

Vice-President Constantino Chiwenga, Secretary-General Jacob Mudenda and other senior party officials raised concerns over the amendments for different reasons and Mnangagwa ended up postponing the meeting to sort out the contentious far-reaching structural proposals.

Today’s politburo meeting is not a replacement or continuation of the postponed or cancelled Friday extraordinary meeting, but a different gathering altogether that marks the beginning of the annual conference.

It is always held at the start of the conference every year, followed by the central committee meeting, travel day for delegates, opening of the gathering and closing event before people go back home.

As first revealed by The NewsHawks in detail yesterday and has now been confirmed by Zanu PF documents flying around in the public domain, the key elements of the proposals include:

🟢Align the Zanu PF constitution with the national constitution, particularly on the electoral system and cycle and how the state presidential election candidate for the ruling party is chosen;
🟢Strengthen the authority of the party and its constitution over its members deployed in government; and
🟢Established the party’s administrative organ; and
🟢Streamline the party’s disciplinary and appeals procedures.

In relation to constitutional amendments and alignment of party and state constitutions, the key issues being taken into account are how the state president is now going to be elected and the length of the term (electoral cycle).

Constitution of Zimbabwe Amendment Act No.3 extended Mnangagwa’s term by two more years from 2028 to 2030, changed the tenure of president and parliament from five to seven years and altered election of the president through direct franchise to vote by the legislature, both the National Assembly and Senate in a joint sitting as an electoral college.

The Zanu PF amendments seek to align its constitution with these changes in the national charter.

In addition, Zanu PF also wants to make changes to ensure that its leader elected by congress every five years is no longer necessarily the party’s presidential election candidate.

It wants to ensure that the party leader is not automatically the presidential election candidate so that a new system applies in 2030 beyond to manage its succession and transition.

This will allow Mnangagwa to remain Zanu PF leader in 2030 and after since he will not be eligible to run for president and someone else – be it Chiwenga, businessman Kudakwashe Tagwirei or retired Zimbabwe Defence Forces commander General Philip Valerio Sibanda – to separately be state president.

These proposals will be discussed this afternoon at the politburo and be tabled before the central committee tomorrow, and form conference resolutions.

These documents excerpts fully confirm The NewsHawks’ detailed explanation of why President Emmerson Mnangagwa cancelled last week’s extraordinary politburo meeting, the latest succession dynamics and what will be discussed in the politburo gathering at 2pm and in the central committee meeting tomorrow as part of the Zanu PF’s annual conference which starts today.