Hopewell Chin’ono writes;
I just want to share an important piece of history with you. ZANU, later ZANUPF, has never had a proper change of leadership at the presidential level.
Every leader has been removed by the army. There has never been a voluntary resignation or retirement.
ZANUPF was formed in 1963, with Reverend Ndabaningi Sithole as its first leader. He was removed by the ZANLA military through the Mgagao Declaration, which General Constantino Chiwenga also signed.
Leadership then shifted temporarily to Advocate Herbert Chitepo, who was Chairman of the party, before he was assassinated by a bomb in Zambia in an incident linked to ZANLA.
Robert Mugabe subsequently took over, and in 2017 he too was removed by the military.
This history is important. If President Emmerson Mnangagwa manages to extend his term of office and install his chosen successor, Kudakwashe Tagwirei, it will mark the first time in the party’s 62-year existence that ZANUPF has experienced a proper leadership transition at the top without military force or being involved overtly.