Kembo Mohadi flown to hospital after falling ill at Zanu PF conference as report of clash with Chiwenga emerges
Vice-President Kembo Mohadi was airlifted to Harare for medical treatment after becoming ill during the 23rd Zanu PF National People’s Conference in Chinhoyi, where a political analyst separately claimed he had clashed with fellow Vice-President Constantino Chiwenga shortly beforehand.
The Presidency said Mohadi was taken to the Trauma Centre in Harare and stabilised. Its spokesman, George Charamba, said: “Vice President KCD Mohadi was taken ill soon after the commencement of proceedings at the conference.”
“He was helped off the top table by his counterpart, Vice President Chiwenga. He was then airlifted to the Trauma Centre in Harare, where his condition was stabilised.” Charamba said President Emmerson Mnangagwa had been kept informed throughout.
The episode unfolded on Friday, October 16, as the conference entered its fourth day at Chinhoyi University of Technology. Mohadi had taken his place at the top table, seated to Mnangagwa’s left, while Chiwenga sat on the President’s right. Mashonaland West provincial minister Marian Chombo was welcoming guests from the rostrum when a commotion began at the leadership table. Chiwenga was seen supporting Mohadi as the two left the stage area.
The official account described a medical emergency and the assistance Mohadi received. It did not describe what had taken place in the leadership meeting beforehand. That account came from political analyst Jealous Mawarire, who said Mohadi and Chiwenga had argued shortly before the Vice-President became ill.
Mawarire wrote that the dispute started during a briefing of the party’s presidium before the day’s proceedings. He said Chiwenga wanted businessman Kudakwashe Tagwirei called into the meeting to answer questions about alleged payments to provincial structures. According to Mawarire, Mohadi objected to Chiwenga’s demand and told him to stop “directing the President on what to do.”
Mawarire said Chiwenga responded by telling Mohadi to “shut up”. He claimed the disagreement concerned allegations that Tagwirei had provided $3 million, including $300,000 for each of the country’s 10 provinces, to mobilise people to boo Chiwenga and to influence delegates on proposed changes to the party constitution.
In Mawarire’s account, Mnangagwa initially resisted bringing Tagwirei into the briefing. Chiwenga then warned that the conference’s Day 4 proceedings would not continue unless Tagwirei was called in, Mawarire said. He wrote that Mnangagwa eventually instructed a member of the party’s protocol department, identified in the post as Mai Gamu, to summon the businessman.
Mawarire said Tagwirei first denied making the payments, then acknowledged them and said they were “only to help fellow Central Committee members.” The account further said Chiwenga reminded Tagwirei that donations should go through the party leadership or the President. It also described a demand for thematic committee meetings to be postponed until the following day, with resolutions sent to Chiwenga before being passed to Zanu PF legal affairs secretary Ziyambi Ziyambi.
Mawarire said Chiwenga wanted to establish whether the proposed resolutions reflected delegates’ views or had been imposed by senior figures. In his post, he quoted the Vice-President as saying he wanted to know whether resolutions were “coming from the PEOPLE freely” and were “not shoved onto them from the top echelons of the party”. Mawarire’s detailed account has not been included in the Presidency’s public explanation of Mohadi’s illness.
The alleged dispute landed at a conference already focused on the party’s future direction and the process for producing its resolutions. The gathering ran from October 12 to 17 under the theme “From Resolutions to Results: Consolidating Economic Development and Deepening Empowerment Towards Vision 2030”. Delegates were due to discuss economic development and the party’s programme, alongside organisational and constitutional matters.
Chiwenga’s public address on Friday emphasised that resolutions should come from party members and that political change should follow the party’s structures. “Change must be driven by the people, not imposed from above,” he told delegates. He also asked: “Are our resolutions truly coming from the people?” The remarks, delivered at the conference, echoed the question Mawarire said had been raised in the earlier briefing, although the public speech did not address the claimed dispute or the alleged payments.
The leadership meeting took place against a wider backdrop of speculation over succession in Zanu PF and the country’s executive. Mohadi is one of the party and country’s two Vice-Presidents, alongside Chiwenga. Any change to the office would be watched closely inside the party, where President Mnangagwa’s future plans, possible constitutional amendments and the next generation of senior leaders have become recurring subjects of discussion.
Retired General Philip Valerio Sibanda has been mentioned in that succession discussion. Mnangagwa appointed Sibanda to the Zanu PF Politburo in May 2026, an appointment the party said took effect under its constitution. Sibanda had previously served as commander of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces after taking over from Chiwenga in 2017 following the military coup that deposed President Robert Mugabe from office. Sibanda was retired from military service in 2025 due to maximum age limit legal requirement which is capped at 70. His entry into the party’s top decision-making body increased his visibility in political circles..
The speculation about Mohadi’s possible departure predates the Chinhoyi conference. In April 2025, a senior government source said Mohadi had informed Mnangagwa that he wanted to retire because of health problems. The source was quoted as saying: “He is spending more time indisposed than at work. He has made the decision himself that he wants to retire, and the president has accepted his decision. It’s now just a matter of timing how and when they make it official.”
No formal announcement of his retirement accompanied that report, and Mohadi continued to serve as Vice-President but his health had drawn public attention on earlier occasions. In June 2024, Mohadi’s knees buckled during a lecture at the University of Zimbabwe and aides helped him to a chair. He asked for water and continued his address while seated. Later that month, after another interruption at a public event, he explained: “I’m not sick, but I’m getting old. That’s why I drink a lot of water.” In October 2023, he had also been taken for medical attention after becoming unwell at a campaign event in Gutu.
The latest episode was more serious in its immediate logistics: Mohadi was removed from the conference venue and flown to Harare, where the Presidency said doctors stabilised his condition. The episode interrupted the opening-day proceedings before senior leaders and delegates, and it drew attention to the Vice-Presidents’ interaction because Chiwenga was beside Mohadi as he was helped away.
The conference proceeded with Mnangagwa delivering the opening address and Chiwenga speaking to delegates. The party’s public programme centred on economic development and Vision 2030, while its internal deliberations included resolutions and organisational questions. The conference is scheduled to conclude on Saturday, October 17.
For now, the confirmed public information is that Mohadi became ill soon after proceedings began, Chiwenga helped him from the top table, and he was airlifted to a Harare hospital before being stabilised. Mawarire’s account places an alleged confrontation and a dispute over Tagwirei’s payments minutes before that medical emergency. Meanwhile, Sibanda’s Politburo appointment and earlier reports that Mohadi wished to retire have kept the question of who might eventually occupy the office in view, even as no succession announcement has been made.