CHIWENGA, THE KNIGHT IN SHINING ARMOUR?

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General Chiwenga is not ambitious. Social media has constructed narratives to portray him as such, but he is not.

Who remembers 2019, when Chiwenga returned from China on a Chinese jet, looking sharp and pronouncing his Rs clearly? Professor Jonathan Moyo commented that all was not well in ZANU PF, noting that no government official was there to receive him except his family. Moyo predicted this signaled an imminent clash between ED and Chiwenga.

Six years later, nothing has happened. Yet, social media narratives about a rift between Chiwenga and ED continue to be peddled.

I have struggled to believe these rumors about an ED-Chiwenga rift, partly because we have waited six years for the escalation Moyo predicted would happen “soon,” but it never did. Also, Chiwenga doesn’t strike me as ambitious.

This doesn’t mean Chiwenga doesn’t want to be president—who wouldn’t, as vice president? But Chiwenga is naively patient, waiting for his turn to ascend to the throne after ED. Until recently, he believed ED would honor the coup deal.

However, the co-opting of Kuda Tagwirei into ZANU PF structures was a rude awakening for Chiwenga. It revealed he is not ED’s preferred candidate but an outsider without liberation war credentials.

This realization prompted Chiwenga to adopt a convenient narrative about corruption and zvigananda to stay relevant, much to the satisfaction of those who have long peddled or exaggerated stories of a rift with ED, seeing this as evidence of a fight.

Momentum built toward the much-anticipated ZANU PF Annual National People’s Conference. At the conference, Chiwenga delivered a “powerful speech,” praised for both its content and eloquence. I wonder, since when did people start praising his speeches so much, without mocking his Ls and Rs?

All momentum fizzled like dying embers when Kuda Tagwirei’s membership in the ZANU PF Central Committee was confirmed and sealed. The 2030 agenda was also confirmed and sealed. The conference ended, and we’re back to square one.

People still hope Chiwenga will do something, believing he’s the military general who removed Mugabe.

I hate to break it to you, but Chiwenga is no longer the man he was in 2017. He has been pacified. In fact, he never was the man you thought he was. He didn’t remove Mugabe—he was used to remove Mugabe.

The real schemer here is ED. He’s the one who removed Mugabe, using the general as a pawn in a chess game. Chiwenga is part of ED’s plan, not the other way around.

Chiwenga is vulnerable to ED. Crazy, right, given that Chiwenga is the general? But it shouldn’t surprise you—men in uniform are often used by men in suits.

As long as you believe that what Matrix is doing to fight drug and substance abuse in Zimbabwe is right, ZANU PF will keep ruling.

Oops, by the way, if you think Chiwenga’s fight—if he’s even fighting—is to restore sanity in Zimbabwe, then it’s safe to say you didn’t pay attention to the events of November 2017.

Nkosiyazi Kan Kanjiri, Bodmin, United Kingdom

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