In what is set to be his last dance, Zimbabwe President Emmerson Mnangagwa cannot ignore predecessor Robert Mugabe’s political capital, good or bad.
By Lenin Ndebele
Mnangagwa, 80, came to power in a military putsch in November 2017 to end Mugabe’s presidential term before winning a disputed election in August 2018.
As he crosses the country, attending presidential rallies ahead of the 23 August elections, Mnangagwa is the only Zanu-PF member who has been in government since 1980.
If he wins, this will be his second and last presidential term, as per provisions in the 2013 Constitution.
Yet, he cannot ignore confronting or taking advantage of the Mugabe legacy.
The Mugabe factor
During his first rallies in Chipinge, Manicaland Province, and Bulilima, Matabeleland South, Mnangagwa was accompanied by Mugabe’s son, Robert Junior.
Critics see the appearance of Robert Junior at the rallies as a way to score “cheap points”.
In Chipinge, he chanted party slogans, hyping the crowd before Mnangagwa’s address.
In Bulilima, Robert Junior appeared alongside Emmerson Mnangagwa Junior when called to the podium by the president.
Political commentator Jones Musara tweeted it was a sign of unity. But this relationship was non-existent in 2018.
On the eve of the elections, Mugabe openly said he would not be voting for people who oppressed him.
That was when some key members of the Generation 40 (G40) faction, who were rallying to stop Mnangagwa in his tracks to succeed Mugabe, fled during the coup.
In exile, they started working with Nelson Chamisa, who led the MDC Alliance.
The plan was to take away Mugabe’s stronghold vote in Mashonaland and gift it to Chamisa who was open to the idea.
Mugabe died in 2019, and his family snubbed a government-assisted burial – a sign all was not well between Mnangagwa and the man who had been by his side since the late 1970s as his personal assistant.
The Mugabe vote this year might also be gifted to someone else.
Saviour Kasukuwere, a one-time ally and Mugabe’s last minister of local government and housing and political commissar at the party level, is in the presidential race as an independent candidate.
Announcing his intention to stand for election, Kasukuwere appealed to Zanu-PF elements who were still loyal to Mugabe to rally behind him.
He argued he was in the race partly because many who were loyal to Mugabe continued to be persecuted.
At heart, he said, he was Zanu-PF.
Kasukuwere will be busing voters from South Africa to Zimbabwe ahead of the general elections.
Mnangagwa’s legacy
One outstanding characteristic of Mnangagwa has been rewriting history by honouring national heroes who were shunned by Mugabe.
His groundbreaking rally in Chipinge was dedicated to the late Ndabaningi Sithole who was one of the founding leaders of the nationalist movement in Zimbabwe.
Sithole was the founding leader of Zanu in 1963 but lost the leadership of the party to Mugabe in 1975 in an internal power struggle.
Since then, his name in the annals of history has been erased.
Mnangagwa has honoured Sithole as a national hero more than 20 years after his death in 2000.
At the weekend rally in Magunje, Mashonaland West, he honoured another stalwart, James Chikerema.
Chikerema was Mugabe’s uncle; they were also born in the same area in Kutama and grew up together.
Later, they became teachers at the same school, Empandeni Mission in Matabeleland South, in the 1950s.
The two would later go their separate ways politically. Chikerema was a critic of Mugabe, despite the two being relatives. He died in 2006.
For political analyst Dr Alexander Rusere “honouring history is a soft target of capturing memory and memorialisation”.
“Human beings naturally soften their stances when those they are angry or bitter towards tend to exhibit some traits of respecting the historical role of people they treasure so much.”
As such for Mnangagwa, he said: “Correction of certain historical wrongs is a low-hanging fruit he can surely exploit.
“A considerable judgment on whether Mnangagwa’s gestures are national goals or own goals will require some time,” Rusere added.
Another political commentator, Dr Innocent Ncube from the School of Oriental and African Studies in London, said Mnangagwa was distancing himself from Mugabe’s legacy by rewriting or correcting Zimbabwe’s historiography.
“This has been his hallmark since 2017. He renamed all army barracks that had colonial names, replacing them with national heroes,” he added.
Source: News24
