Tagwirei Cooption Saga: How We Got Here

Further information has now surfaced showing before local tycoon Kudakwashe Tagwirei was expelled from a Zanu PF Central Committee meeting in Harare last week on Thursday, there was a fierce tug-of-war between the party secretary-general Obert Mpofu and legal affairs secretary Patrick Chinamasa over his co-option process, inside sources say.

The issue was discussed first in party structures leading to the politburo, central committee and national consultative assembly meetings last week where it was supposed to be finalised, with circulars flying back and forth, they said.

The political drama started in March when Zanu PF Harare Provincial chairperson Godwills Masimirembwa and his Provincial Coordinating Committee – a wrong structure – recommended Tagwirei to be co-opted into the central committee.

Tagwirei currently resides in the upmarket Borrowdale, Harare, but in a different administrative district as the late central committee member that he is seeking to replace, which is unconstitutional, unlawful and unprocedural (The NewsHawks will explain in detail that issue).

Masvingo had also tried to do the same, saying Tagwirei has roots in Gutu district in the province.

The two provinces, Harare and Masvingo, were vying to rope in Tagwirei to their structures for his money and influence, not political capital.

A senior Zanu PF official told The NewsHawks that Mpofu, whose is effectively Number 5 in the party hierarchy or pecking order below the presidium – that is President Emmerson, Vice-Presidents Constantino Chiwenga and Kembo Mohadi, and chair Oppah Muchinguri-Kashiri, first issued his circular on 5 June, but 25 days later Chinamasa – who was supporting Tagwirei – fought back and withdrew it on 30 June, sending his own to the provincial leadership.

Mpofu supports Chiwenga in the ongoing Zanu PF succession battle between Mnangagwa and his powerful deputy.

Tagwirei has emerged as a dark horse, rattling Chiwenga, but the business mogul denies he has presidential ambitions.

Officials say Chinamasa’s calculated political manoeuvre to rescue Tagwirei was a serious subversion of authority as Mpofu is more senior to him by virtue of their offices and liberation struggle credentials, which matter in the ruling party.

At that point, Chinamasa acted like that because Mnangagwa still supported Tagwirei’s co-option through that process.Chiwenga then stopped them in their tracks, although they are plotting a fightback with Mnangagwa changing tack to avoid a major public showdown with his deputy over that and the 2030 succession agenda battle.

In reaction to Chinamasa, Mpofu resent his circular just before the crucial meetings last week and roped in Chiwenga who ejected Tagwirei from the central committee on Thursday last week.

Chiwenga flexed his political muscle to turn the tables in the central committee, the party’s decision-making body in-between congresses before more than 300 members in the meeting.

Chinamasa was one of the party officials instructed by Chiwenga – together with Mpofu, national commissar Munyaradzi Machacha, and security secretary Lovemore Matuke – to confrontationally remove Tagwirei from the meeting.

In the politburo last week on Wednesday, it had appeared Tagwirei’s co-option had been approved by consensus.

However, the following day Chiwenga intervened and stopped it.

On Friday last week at the national consultative assembly, Mnangagwa, after a meeting with Chiwenga, denounced “zvigananda”, a reference to tenderpreneuers and dealers, including Tagwirei, leaving party officials and members dismayed and confused.

On Tuesday, party spokesman Christopher Mutsvangwa issued a statement, saying despite current political tiffs Mnangagwa and Chiwenga are “inseparable”, showing a shift against the 2030 brigade who include Tagwirei.

As things stand in Zanu PF amid a shifting balance of factional forces, the controversial co-option process was stalled and Tagwirei has been barred from the central committee, despite Chinamasa’s spirited effort to rescue him as shown in this attached letter which has been overtaken by events.