Zimbabwe’s deepening power struggle has erupted into open confrontation after Justice Minister and ZANU-PF Secretary for Legal Affairs, Cde Ziyambi Ziyambi, formally accused Vice President Constantino Chiwenga of acts tantamount to treason in a blistering 25-page memorandum delivered to President Emmerson Mnangagwa and the ruling party’s Politburo.
In the explosive response, dated 17 September 2025, Ziyambi directly rebukes a confidential document authored and presented by Chiwenga to the President, describing it as “fundamentally flawed, inciteful, and treasonous.” The minister accuses the Vice President of attempting to “undermine a constitutionally elected President” and of “rekindling the appetite to return Zimbabwe to November 2017.”
The Justice Minister warns that Chiwenga’s memo — which demanded the arrest of businessmen Kudakwashe Tagwirei, Wicknell Chivhayo, Scott Sakupwanya, and Delish Nguwaya over alleged multi-billion-dollar corruption — was part of a “covert agenda to destabilise Government and subvert constitutional order.” He adds that such conduct “should be crushed” and may warrant immediate censure under treason statutes.
Ziyambi further defends Mnangagwa’s controversial “2030 Agenda” — a ZANU-PF resolution viewed by critics as a move to extend the President’s rule — insisting it was “lawful, constitutional, and driven by the people.”
The extraordinary public rift between Mnangagwa’s loyalists and the powerful Vice President signals the gravest internal confrontation within ZANU-PF since the 2017 coup that toppled Robert Mugabe.
Political analysts warn that the accusation — if pursued — could trigger a historic showdown between the country’s two most powerful men, both former generals who once stood side by side in “Operation Restore Legacy.”
— ZimEye