Vice President Constantino Chiwenga has once again cranked up the pressure on a Zanu PF faction pushing for President Emmerson Mnangagwa to extend his rule beyond 2028, reminding fellow ruling party members of the dangers of going against promises they made when removing Robert Mugabe nine years ago.
Chiwenga, who led the coup that toppled Mugabe in 2017, last year consistentlycomplained that Zanu PF has been hijacked by a clique pre-occupied by accumulation of wealth, has never publicly endorsed the 2030 agenda.
In January last year, he used the burial of Justin Mupamhanga at the Heroes Acre while he was acting president to rail against the zvigananda, who were growing “big tummies through ill-gotten wealth and questionable morals.”
The term zvigananda became associated with a coterie of controversial businessmen that are seen as key financiers of the agenda 2030 campaign.
On Friday, Chiwenga again used the burial of late retired Brigadier-General Mathias Tizirai Ngarava at the Heroes Acre to question Zanu PF’s trajectory.
He questioned the legacy the country’s leadership wanted to leave behind as Zimbabweans sink deeper into poverty amid massive plunder of state resources.
Political analysts told The Standard that the VP spoke to the unfulfilled promises made during the 2017 coup, which catapulted Mnangagwa into power.
"Burials are supposed to close chapters. This one opened a ledger," Australian-based former Zanu PF member Reason Wafawarova said.
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"There is another audience to whom the speech spoke directly, even without naming them: the military constituency that carried the weight of 2017 — alongside the masses who marched in hope,” Wafawarova said.
"That constituency has watched in disbelief as reform promises were replaced by feudal extraction; as public service became private accumulation; as senior officers died under unresolved circumstances; as the vice president himself survived a prolonged and unexplained illness abroad; as dossiers were ignored, and questions deflected."
Exiled former minister Saviour Kasukuwere said Chiwenga’s message at the Heroes Acre was clear and principled.
"The liberation struggle was fought for integrity, service and national dignity, not corruption or self-enrichment," Kasukuwere said.
"His call for ethical leadership and clean governance is a patriotic reminder to all leaders to honour the sacrifices of our heroes through accountable and people-centred leadership.
"It should not be narrowly read as a personal vote of confidence in any individual, but as a collective call on the entire leadership to live up to the values of the liberation struggle.”
Bulawayo-based political analyst Effie Ncube said all leaders must consider the legacy they will pass on to future generations.
"The most important legacy is to leave behind a non-sexist, non-racial, non-tribal, free, democratic and prosperous republic in which the rule of law, respect for human rights, equal justice under the law, and equal opportunities are guaranteed both in the law and in everyday reality," Ncube said.
"To achieve and sustain this, our country must have no room for corruption, tribalism, racism and any other forms of discrimination.
"All of us should share in this vision and pass it on to future generations."
Mthwakazi Republic Party leader Mqondisi Moyo echoed similar sentiments.
"It is now widely acknowledged that grand corruption in Zimbabwe is concentrated around the centres of state power," Moyo said.
"The so-called zvigananda are not an accident of geography; they are the product of a governance culture that celebrates accumulation without accountability."
Moyo said Chiwenga's call for ethical leadership echoed what millions have been demanding for decades.
"When Vice-President Constantino Chiwenga declares that “the liberation struggle was not waged so that a few can prosper while many live in abject poverty,” he speaks a truth long known to Zimbabweans," he said.
"When he asks whether leaders are leaving behind “a legacy of sacrifice and patriotic service, or one of plunder,” he poses the right question—more openly than many of his peers.
"His condemnation of the zvigananda—those who flaunt wealth obtained through bribes, political proximity, and manipulated state contracts—correctly identifies the moral decay at the heart of Zimbabwe’s political economy."
Harare-based political analyst Reason Ngwenya, however, argued that Chiwenga’s speech was meaningless without political will to weed out corruption and bad governance.
"The point is, he has said it before and it triggered a national debate on corruption," Ngwenya said.
"However, despite conceited efforts to show Mnangagwa documented evidence at a politburo meeting, there's no political will to address the issues. At the end of the day, it’s all optics."
A Zanu PF insider who refused to be named fearing reprisals said Chiwenga could have been addressing a constituency in Zanu PF that was growing increasingly frustrated by the influence of moneybags linked to Mnangagwa.
"There is growing frustration within the party in the government’s failure to combat looting, bad corporate governance and distribution of cars while ignoring service delivery which was the key component of the liberation struggle," the Zanu PF official said.
Chiwenga’s speech also generated debate on social media platforms with opposition leader Jacob Ngarivhume, saying it was instructive that such issues always arose in Mnangagwa’s absence.
"Zimbabwe, do you realise that fairness, equity, and #anticorruption are only discussed at the heroes acre when ED is not around! What does that mean? Does this not mean that he is the #godfather of the ills or that those who stand for #corruption are with him?
#NoToCorruption," he posted on X.
Zanu PF critic Majaira Jairos said Chiwenga reflected the thinking of long suffering Zimbabweans.
"Each and every statement he makes, particularly against Zvigananda, is overwhelmingly supported by right thinking Zimbabweans," he posted on X.
Another X user Rex Midzi added: "This speech was clear, no right thinking person can argue the content. Inclusion for all is the message."
Zanu PF legal affairs secretary Ziyambi Ziyambi last year accused Chiwenga of trying to decampaign Mnangagwa after the VP handed his boss a dossier allegedly showing massive looting of state resources by his associates.
