3. The November 2017 coup and the fall of Robert Mugabe The November 2017 coup in Zimbabwe was preceded by a long history of factional struggles in Zanu-PF, with the dominant military emerging as the central power player in the party starting in the liberation war years. In 1975, the Mgagao Declaration, made by the war veterans in Zanu based in liberation camps in Tanzania, effectively removed the previous Zanu leader Ndabaningi Sithole from the leadership of the party on the grounds that he had betrayed the liberation struggle. This declaration laid the ground for the emergence of Mugabe’s leadership at the behest of the military on the ground. A key figure in establishing Mugabe’s dominance from 1977 was war commander Rex Nhongo, who played a significant role in eliminating any dissenting voices against Mugabe’s leadership during this period.93 These factional battles were based on a combination of ethnic as well as strategic and ideological differences, and increasingly grew around the two major ethnic groups within the broader Shona grouping: Mugabe’s Zezuru group and Mnangagwa’s Karanga group. Having noted this, it needs to be made clear that such inter-ethnic conflict were also accompanied by fault lines within ethnic groups. In the period after 1980, the military continued to be the dominant force in Zanu-PF, although from a background position. This changed from the late 1990s in the face of a strong opposition and a real threat to the ruling party. Formal state institutions were increasingly dominated by military figures, and the key sectors of the economy became the focus of accumulation by senior military figures. Through the land occupations, the military elite were central benefactors of land allocation, while the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe and the Ministry of Finance channelled money to fund parallel agricultural schemes through shadowy companies with links to the military. In addition, the military elite controlled the tenders to supply inputs
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into the command agriculture scheme through a company called Sakunda Holdings. Moreover, through a partnership with a Singapore-based enterprise called Trafigura, Sakunda controlled the single fuel pipeline from Mozambique to Zimbabwe, thus dominating the import and sale of fuel into the country.94 Following months of factional struggles between the Lacoste faction led by then Vice President Emerson Mnangagwa (also nicknamed ‘the crocodile’), and the Generation 40 (G40) faction around President Robert Mugabe and his wife Grace, Mugabe fired Mnangagwa on 6 November 2017. This followed
The November 2017 coup in Zimbabwe was preceded by a long history of factional struggles in Zanu-PF, with the dominant military emerging as the central power player in the party starting in the liberation war years. In 1975, the Mgagao Declaration, made by the war veterans in Zanu based in liberation camps in Tanzania, effectively removed the previous Zanu leader Ndabaningi Sithole from the leadership of the party on the grounds that he had betrayed the liberation struggle.
Tendi, 2020 Zamchiya, 2020
CASE STUDY: NAVIGATING TURBULENCE IN ZIMBABWE
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