Old-guard intelligence chief Emmerson Mnangagwa will be up against popular ex-Local Government Minister John Nkomo and reformer Makoni...
Simon Muzenda and Joseph Msika held on as Vice-Presidents with John Nkomo as National Chairman...
At present the Politbureau is dominated by Mugabe's lieutenants from the liberation struggle of the 1970s: Robert Mugabe (President and First Secretary) Simon Muzenda (Second Secretary and Vice- President) Joseph Msika (Second Secretary and Vice-President) John Nkomo (Chairman) Didymus Mutasa (Administration) Emmerson Mnangagwa (Finance) Moven Mahachi (Commissariat and Culture) Stephen Nkomo (External Affairs) Sydney Sekeramayi (Security) Nathan Shamuyarira (Information and Publicity) Welshman Mabhena (Transport and Welfare) Tenjiwe Lesabe (Women's Affairs) Josiah Tungamirai (Youth) Naison Ndlovu (Economic Affairs) Eddison Zvobgo (Legal) Joyce Mujuru (Education) Oppah Rushesha Muchinguri (Health) Vacant (Production and Labour)...
But they would encounter heavy opposition from both Mnangagwa and John Nkomo who have stayed aloof from this plan...
Their obvious candidate is John Nkomo who has studiously kept away from both the Matebeleland and South-South groups...
Yet Mnangagwa is not popular among the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front's senior apparatchiks: they defeated his bid for the party chairmanship last December preferring instead the more emollient John Nkomo...
His nearest rival in the succession race is John Nkomo who has been moved from Local Government to the Home Affairs portfolio...
Neither will Mugabe 's probable appointment of sons of Matebeleland such as Dabengwa former Local Government Minister John Nkomo and former Tourism Minister Simon Moyo as nominated MPs help ZANU-PF much...
Indeed the ministerial team Mugabe sent to London certainly Minister of Local Government John Nkomo and retiring Trade Minister Nathan Shamuyarira appeared keen to maintain a dialogue with Whitehall and say they are happy to accept international monitoring of the elections...
ZANU-PF is now factionalised along regional-ethnic lines (between the Shona sub-groups the Karanga and the Ndebele) and along ideological lines between hardliners close to the military (such as Mugabe Justice Minister Emmerson Mnangagwa Lieutenant General Vitalis Zvinavashe) and reformers (Security Minister Sydney Sekeramayi Local Government Minister John Nkomo Home Affairs Minister Dabengwa)...
Plotting in the Politbureau contributed to his dismal failure to win the national chairpersonship at the party congress on 16-18 December; he won only two provinces while the victor John Nkomo won six...
This problem is shared by John Nkomo (66) Local Government Minister and another Ndebele...
The more likely candidates to succeed Mugabe - Local Government Minister John Nkomo Justice Minister Emmerson Mnangagwa and Security Minister Sydney Sekeramayi - maintained a discreet distance as the referendum campaign degenerated into farce...
Yet after the elections the new Premier (and ZANU National Chairman) John Nkomo will tell Mugabe the economy can't survive without donor assistance...
He will nominate Emmerson Mnangagwa as his successor provoking deep divisions in ZANU between John Nkomo's faction and Mnangagwa's...
Mnangagwa a frontrunner for the presidency stood for the chairmanship but lost badly to Local Government Minister John Nkomo (66)...
