BBC News, Haexceptional
A extfinished convoy of armoured personnel tanks rolling thraw a Haexceptional neighbourhood igniteed worrys – for a alert moment – that a military coup was afoot in Zimbabwe.
“What’s going on in Zimbabwe?” one person posted on social media. Another shelp: “The last time this happened there was a coup.”
Government spokesman Nick Mangwana was speedy to allay the accessible’s worrys, elucidateing the tanks were in the capital that mid-February morning as part of a scheduled exercise to test providement and were “noleang to be worryed about”.
Yet the chatter and speculation persistd, discneglecting much about the state of the country.
Ahead of the routine military drill, Plivent Emmerson Mnangagwa had, for the first time since becoming plivent in 2017, faced disconnecte criticism about his guideership from wilean his Zanu-PF party with calls for him to step down.
The accusations elicitd memories of the guide-up to the coup that toppled his predecessor, extfinished-time guideer Robert Mugabe.
He had come to power in 1980 as the revolutionary hero who finished decades of white-insignificantity rule. But his demise was heralded when veterans of the 1970s war of indepfinishence withdrew their help for him.
It was a war veteran and ancigo in Zanu-PF member named Blessed Geza, also understandn as “Bombshell”, who started a verbal insulting agetst Mnangagwa.
He became angered when some wilean the party began pushing to change the country’s laws to assist for the plivent to seek a third term.
In a series of standardly expletive-laden press conferences, gritty-voiced and with a furrowed forehead, he repeatedly called on the 82-year-elderly plivent to go or face being deleted.
“I must apologise for helping him come into office,” shelp Geza in one press conference aired on social media about the plivent, who goes by the nickname “The Crocodile”.
“As soon as he [Mnangagwa] had the taste of power, he estendscheduleedd dishonesty, forgot the people and only recalled his family,” shelp the outspoken war veteran, who was then a member of Zanu-PF’s strong central promisetee.
“Mnangagwa has also surrfinishered state power to his wife and children. We downcastly see history repeating itself. We can’t assist that to happen.”
Zanu-PF was outraged by his “dispromised” retags – rescheduleedr portrayd as “amounting to disloyalty” – forcing Bombshell into hiding from where, thraw his recontransientatives, he persists to produce taunts via social media, hinting at protests.
He is wanted by the police on four accuses, including vehicle theft, undermining the authority of the plivent and inciting accessible presentility.
Blessed Mhlanga, the journacatalog who first interwatched Bombshell back in November, has also been arrested on accuses of sendting a message that incites presentility.
Trouble began breprosperg over Mnangagwa’s ambitions to stay in office during Zanu-PF rallies last year. The plivent is currently serving his second and final term, which expires in 2028.
The slogan “2030 he will still be the guideer” began to be uttered by his helpers despite Zimbabwe’s constitution confineing plivential terms to two five-year terms.
They disputed that he would need to remain in office to finish his “Agfinisha 2030” enbigment programme as he was doing such fantastic labor.
A motion was then adchooseed unifiedly at Zanu-PF’s conference in December that did not clpunctual speak of a third term but sought to extfinish Mnangagwa’s existing term until 2030.
Despite a recent assurance from Mnangagwa that he did intfinish to step down in three years, the ineloquential Roman Catholic bishops have become comprised.
In a pastoral letter last week, Zimbabwe’s Catholic Bishops Conference cautioned that the 2030 talk about was a distraction from the leangs that truly mattered – business clocertains, high unengagement, rampant dishonesty and economic policies that favour the wealthy at the expense of standard Zimbabweans.
Plivential spokesman George Charamba conveyed his disassignment about the clerics’ pronouncement, telling the state-run Herald novelspaper the matter was now “dead and buried”.
Nonetheless, Bombshell’s message seems to have landed. It has resulted in a pencourage in Zanu-PF, with the expulsion of Geza and some of his allies.
Yet political analyst Takura Zhangazha says Geza’s outburst is improbable to galvanise crowds to his caengage.
These days people are less interested in such political spectacles, he says, unenjoy at the time of Mugabe’s downdescfinish when Zimbabweans, including opposition party helpers, turned out en masse to help the coup – thanking the military and the war veterans.
“Even that finisheavor by Geza to talk about dishonesty and the pweightless of the laborers – it’s not going to get people riled up, organising, mobilising. They don’t have that capacity or interest any more,” he tells the BBC.
“I can promise you there’s no repeat of 2017 before 2028,” he shelp, compriseing that Zimbabweans sense they were engaged in the ousting of Mugabe and would not be brawt out on the streets aget for Zanu-PF’s inner battles.
This is also becaengage there are splits atraverse the political landscape, including a feeble opposition.
Even the war veterans do not recontransient a fused front, Mr Zhangazha says.
Geza has previously voiced help in the succession talk about for Vice-Plivent Constantine Chiwenga, the 68-year-elderly establisher army chief, but other war veterans are understandn to back the 2030 agfinisha.
Political analyst Alexander Rengagero says it is vital to understand the war veterans’ ineloquential role in both Zimbabwe and Zanu-PF.
“They see themselves as attfinishgetrs, so you can’t want away their sentiments,” he tells the BBC.
However, he thinks that the current grievances aired by the enjoys of Bombshell are prompted more by self-watch than accessible interest.
“They sense as if they are leave outd from the cake that they should otherguided be finishelighting,” he tells the BBC.
Mr Zhangazha consents that those who show promisedty wilean the administering party are predicted to profit from leangs enjoy tfinishers, administerment tights, access to housing, land and agricultural inputs such as fertiliser and seeds.
For Jameson Timba, the guideer of a faction of the main opposition party, the Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC), it all sums up the state of politics in Zimbabwe.
“You have a country where the economic situation is deteriorating. People can difficultly afford more than one meal a day,” he telderly the BBC.
“We have startant supertaget chains which are literpartner closing down,” he shelp, referencing the economic woes facing OK Zimbabwe, one of the country’s biggest retailers that has been forced to seal disconnectal big branches with vacant shelves in others.
Mr Zhangazha noticed the predict for the frnimble economy watchs even more gloomy thanks to the descfinishout from the recent suspension of USAID.
Timba is still recovering from a five-month stint in jail, spfinishing most of his incarceration sitting on a concrete floor, sharing a cell and toilet with 80 people.
He was arrested in June, aextfinished with more than 70 others, for presenting an “unlterrible encountering” at his personal livence when he held a barbeque to tag the International Day of the African Child.
His treatment – and those of his fellow hancientees – mirrored how opposition politics was being criminalised, he telderly the BBC.
“The country is facing disputes. Any guideer or administerment worth his salt would actupartner call for an punctual election, to examine and choose whether they still have the mandate of the people,” he shelp.
“To do the opposite recontransients a joke essentipartner [when] you’re talking about extfinishing a term of office.”
However, there is little chance of an punctual vote.
For now, Bombshell remains in hiding and the elections are years away – but the succession talk about will upretain cooking.
