HARARE – A dramatic scene unfolded at Zanu PF headquarters yesterday, as businessman Kudakwashe Tagwirei was reportedly ejected from a central committee meeting, highlighting the escalating power struggles within the ruling party and the intensifying race to succeed President Emmerson Mnangagwa. The incident has raised serious questions about Tagwirei’s quick elevation into the influential body and exposed divisions within Zanu PF’s top ranks.
Reports indicate that Tagwirei, a key ally and financier of President Emmerson Mnangagwa, was not supposed to attend the meeting until the party formally approved his co-option into the central committee.
“Tagwirei tried to resist the officials, but he later left the meeting before Mnangagwa addressed the gathering. The problem is that he (Tagwirei) was recommended for co-option into the central committee by Harare province pending approval from the central committee,” the sources said. “Tagwirei was not supposed to attend the central committee meeting before the recommendation for co-option is passed. In fact, he should have waited for the approval and probably attend the next central committee meeting.”
Zanu PF spokesperson Chris Mutsvangwa has stated that Tagwirei’s attendance at the Zanu PF central committee meeting was a violation of the ruling party’s constitution and could complicate his quick elevation into the influential body. Mutsvangwa suggested that Tagwirei may have to start from the party’s grassroot structures or to go through the Herbert Chitepo School of Ideology.
“This kind of behaviour creates its own problems because it flouts the constitution, the party guiding principles and tenets,” he said. “It shows that you are not ready to be part of it and you may have to go back and understand where you are.”
“He wanted to know the power he was assuming not the mode to exercise that power. Without that faux pas, the process would have taken its due course. It brings with it an element of bad faith or uninformed ambition. This ignorance or naivety indicates that his beginning should be the Chitepo School of Ideology. The tenets of the party are concretised in its constitution and if you are coming in you have to relate accordingly.”
However, Zanu-PF spin doctor Farai Marapira has downplayed the incident, stating that Tagwirei, along with other new nominees, was asked to step aside because their appointments had not yet been officially approved.
Speaking to 263Chat, Marapira confirmed that Tagwirei was indeed asked to leave the meeting held on Thursday, 3 July 2025, but insisted it was nothing personal. He explained that Tagwirei, along with other new nominees, was asked to step aside because their appointments had not yet been officially approved. “It’s true Cde Kudakwashe Tagwirei and other prospective members of the Central Committee were asked to excuse themselves from the meeting as their issue had not been ratified, finalised. It was not just him alone,” Marapira said.
He went on to say that Tagwirei’s entry into the Central Committee had merely been postponed to allow the party to focus on more pressing matters. According to Marapira, there’s a clear process that needs to be followed: once provincial executives recommend a candidate, the nomination must still be ratified by the Central Committee itself before the person can take part in meetings. “The issue was postponed to a later date as some more important issues took precedence. It was not on the agenda. It’s a technicality. The process is that after some recommendations by provincial executives, party members who are being co-opted into the Central Committee have to wait until their issues have been ratified first before they are admitted and can attend,” Marapira added.
Tagwirei, a former advisor to President Emmerson Mnangagwa, is being supported by Zanu PF’s Harare province to join the central committee amid resistance by a faction linked to Vice-President Constantino Chiwenga. His co-option was delayed by what Zanu PF officials said were procedures that needed to be followed and Mutsvangwa said he needed to be cleared by the presidium consisting of Mnangagwa, Chiwenga and Kembo Mohadi before he could attend meetings.
“The presidium was supposed to deliberate and endorse the appointment, but whether it was for lack of proper advice from the Harare provincial leadership or personal ambition, he assumed it would be a headlong stampede,” Mutsvangwa told The Standard. “It was procedurally wrong and the constitution had to be read out to him that ‘you are not yet a member and that you are coming into an institution with principles and guidelines’.”
“Anybody is free to join Zanu PF, whether you be a businessman, a farmer, fisherman or whatever. If certain provinces feel that that person should become a central committee member and they send their recommendations, the party will consider those resolutions and will come out with an appropriate decision,” Mutsvangwa told a news conference in May. “What would be wrong is to say I’m getting into the party so that I become this or that post, that I become the president, because that is not the purpose of joining the party. The purpose of joining the party is to follow the constitution of the party and see to it that when succession is done by votes, you comply with the tenets of that party.”
He continued: “It’s a mass party, it’s not a vanguard party, it allows everybody to come into the party. But if you come on a ticket that I want power, the people may see through what you want and that becomes a challenge. Hopefully all the businessman entrants who come through will come to serve the party and not to serve themselves because serving themselves will not take them anywhere in Zanu PF, I can vouch for that. Just like presidents who went haywire and we removed them, Zanu PF will winnow out any people with hidden ambitions other than following the strictures of Zanu PF.”
Meanwhile, the Zanu PF Harare provincial executive will meet today where a fresh strategy to revive Tagwirei’s central committee bid will be amid indications that he will be elevated into the party’s top six in the province. Once he is in the party’s top six, it would be easier for him to be coopted into the central committee, insiders said.
The meeting to be held Batanai Primary School in Epworth is ostensibly being organised to prepare for a municipal by-election, but sources said the central committee position would be top of the agenda. “The plan is now to create a vacancy in to the Harare top six and appoint Tagwirei so that he can now be seconded to the CC,” the Zanu PF source said.
The incident comes amid growing speculation that Tagwirei, often dubbed “Queen Bee” for his vast business reach, is positioning himself as Mnangagwa’s preferred successor in the run-up to the 2028 elections.
Mutsvangwa suggested that Tagwirei may have to start from the party’s grassroot structures or to go through the Herbert Chitepo School of Ideology. “This kind of behaviour creates its own problems because it flouts the constitution, the party guiding principles and tenets,” he said. “It shows that you are not ready to be part of it and you may have to go back and understand where you are.”
As 2028 looms, analysts say Zimbabwe’s ruling party is navigating a treacherous political transition. They argue Mutsvangwa’s rebellion may not halt Tagwirei’s rise, but it signals that ZANU-PF’s unity, long held together by liberation credentials, is beginning to fracture.
President Emmerson Mnangagwa yesterday remonstrated supporters and factions causing divisions in the party and called on members to adhere to the Zanu PF constitution and guiding principles. He also lamented the divisive challenges afflicting Zanu PF, calling on party members to focus on accelerating development, unity and peace.
Addressing the ruling party’s central committee, Mnangagwa urged members to remain focused on the path towards transformative development, industrialisation and modernisation. He told members of the central committee to avoid being “distracted by sideshows and narratives that feed the agenda of optimists, bent on diverting us from the accelerated development, unity and peace that is evident and currently prevailing in our country”.
Said Mnangagwa: “We are supposed to follow the party principles not the interests of individuals or groups of people. We must never, as individuals or groups, guide our party towards personal or clique interests. All our activities and directives must always be guided by our party constitution, our rules in the constitution, the regulations and procedures in the constitution. Those are the guiding pillars of how we work and relate.”
The Zanu PF leader also called for integrity and leadership within the party leadership. “You, who are here, are members of the central committee. You are expected to have the highest level of integrity, the highest level of discipline and honour is expected of us all here,” he said. “So wherever we are, we must show that integrity of leadership, that discipline of leadership, that respect expected of us towards others from us.”
While Tagwirei enjoys Mnangagwa’s backing and vast financial resources, critics say he lacks the political savvy, grassroots structures and broad-based support required to mount a credible campaign.
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