By Hopewell Chin’ono
President Emmerson Mnangagwa is purging Zimbabwe’s retorted military top brass loyal to his deputy, Vice President General Constantino Chiwenga, by posting them abroad as ambassadors, the latest move in a succession battle that has intensified since President Mnangagwa extended his own rule by two years.
After securing an extra two years in office through Constitutional Amendment Act No. 3, which also bars his main rival from succeeding him in 2028, President Emmerson Mnangagwa has moved to the next stage of neutralising the political threat he sees in his deputy.
The president is now posting senior retired military figures close to General Chiwenga out of the country as diplomats, especially officers long viewed as part of Chiwenga’s power base meant to propel him to state house.
Retired Lieutenant General Engelbert Rugeje, one of the vice president’s closest allies, is reportedly set to become Zimbabwe’s ambassador to Mozambique, filling the post left vacant by the death of Victor Matemadanda.
Air Marshal Elson Moyo, the former Commander of the Air Force of Zimbabwe and another officer with ties to Chiwenga, is also among those being sent abroad.
Twenty six diplomatic appointments are expected to be announced in total, and sources say a significant number of them will pull Chiwenga loyalists out of the country and into embassies far from Harare’s corridors of power.
The Mozambique posting in particular has become something of a pattern, a graveyard shift for retired generals. Former Lieutenant General Douglas Nyikayaramba took up the role in 2019 and died two years later after contracting pandemic.
Victor Matemadanda, a war veteran leader and former junior defence minister, succeeded him and served as ambassador to both Mozambique and Eswatini until his own death in June this year.
Rugeje would now become the third former senior officer Mnangagwa has sent to lead the Maputo mission in seven years, a run that says as much about the president’s succession strategy as it does about diplomacy.