President Emmerson Mnangagwa is not sleeping well at night. The man who helped lead a coup in 2017 and survived a secret one in 2019 is now obsessed with preventing another. As he battles Vice President Constantino Chiwenga for power, he has turned Zimbabwe\u2019s army into a personal project. Coup-proofing has become his survival strategy, not for the country but for himself. This week, Mnangagwa handed out more than 100 vehicles to the Zimbabwe Defence Forces. He claimed it was part of a bigger plan to deliver 700 vehicles including buses and off-road cars to improve army mobility. But the real goal is painfully obvious. These are bribes in disguise. Mnangagwa is buying loyalty with keys and fuel tanks, hoping the soldiers forget about Chiwenga and fall in love with Toyota.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This power struggle is deeper than politics. It is a war between two men who once removed Robert Mugabe together but now want to replace each other. Chiwenga was army commander for 14 years and has liberation war credentials. Mnangagwa also has military roots and once served as Defence Minister. Now both are using their history with the army to secure their futures. In the process, they are tearing apart the very institution they once claimed to serve. Soldiers are no longer promoted based on merit. Loyalty to Mnangagwa has replaced competence. He rotates posts often to break relationships. He promotes allies who pose no threat. He even puts military men into civilian posts to keep an eye on ministries. It is a web of fear and control. It is not governance. It is paranoia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mnangagwa speaks of patriotism and civilian supremacy like a broken record. But the reality on the ground tells a different story. His government has militarised everything. Police. Intelligence. Parastatals. Even sports. The military is now in charge of everyday life in Zimbabwe. Civilians take orders from men in uniform. The line between government and army has disappeared. This is not a democracy. It is a uniformed dictatorship hiding behind stolen elections and borrowed slogans from the liberation war.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
His latest trick is tribalism. Ethnicity now determines promotions. People from the President\u2019s ethnic group rise faster than anyone else. This kind of manipulation may work in the short term but it is dangerous in the long run. It breeds resentment. It divides the forces. It weakens discipline. And in a country with a fragile economy and angry citizens, that kind of division can explode at any time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
ZANU PF will hold a crucial meeting in Mutare next month. It is not a congress but Mnangagwa\u2019s supporters want to use it to start whispering about a third term. The constitution says 2028 is his last year. But just like Mugabe, he wants to die in office. So he is slowly tightening his grip ahead of the 2027 party congress where new leadership could emerge. He is eliminating every possible threat, including Chiwenga, using silent purges and disguised demotions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
General Anselem Sanyatwe is a good example. He was sent to Tanzania as ambassador and then made Minister of Sports. That is not a promotion. That is exile in disguise. All this happened after coup rumours in March 2025. Since 2017, five army bosses have come and gone. Under Mugabe, there was just one in 14 years. That tells you everything you need to know. This is not stability. It is a man clinging to power using fear and favours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mnangagwa is not building a better Zimbabwe. He is building a bunker. And the cost is our democracy. The real question is not whether another coup will happen. The real question is what happens when the gifts run out and the soldiers remember that they too are hungry.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
President Emmerson Mnangagwa is not sleeping well at night. The man who helped lead a coup in 2017 and survived a secret one in 2019 is now obsessed with preventing another. As he battles Vice President Constantino Chiwenga for power, he has turned Zimbabwe\u2019s army into a personal project. Coup-proofing has become his survival strategy, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":191,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mellisamarewangepo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mellisamarewangepo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mellisamarewangepo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mellisamarewangepo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mellisamarewangepo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=190"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mellisamarewangepo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":192,"href":"https:\/\/mellisamarewangepo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190\/revisions\/192"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mellisamarewangepo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/191"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mellisamarewangepo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=190"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mellisamarewangepo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=190"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mellisamarewangepo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=190"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}