ZANU-PF on death watch

The Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front is on a macabre death watch as it remains divided over who will succeed its 92-year-old leader Robert Mugabe who, it appears, seems determined to move from State-House to Heroes’ Acre.

In an article entitled Zimbabwe’s dying dictatorship, University of Zimbabwe lecturer Eldred Masunungure and Michigan State University professor Michael Bratton argue that although Zimbabwe is facing a myriad of problems the biggest one is the uncertainty about who will succeed Mugabe.

“As if struggles within the ZANU-PF over the succession to the presidency weren’t bad enough, Mugabe’s advanced age and failing health have also left him increasingly unable to control events,” they write in Foreign Affairs magazine.

“And so the country is transfixed by a macabre death watch and an internecine power struggle, and the longer they go on, the more likely that any political transition will be unpredictable, disorderly, and perhaps even violent.”

The two academics say although Zimbabwe is facing economic problems, social unrest and a devastating drought, these problems are overshadowed by uncertainty about leadership transition within the ruling party.

“By all appearances, Mugabe intends to serve a life presidency, die in office, and have his body transferred directly from State House to Heroes Acre.,” the article says.

“First Lady Grace Mugabe has even floated the creepy idea that Mugabe might rule posthumously from the grave.

“The presumed indispensability of the country’s founding father lies at the crux of the ZANU-PF’s dilemma: how to make a peaceful change of leader while preserving the party’s dominance over state institutions.”

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