First he must find reliable candidates for two key posts: the vice-presidency of the ruling Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) to replace Simon Vengesayi Muzenda who died on 20 September and a Commander of the Zimbabwe Defence Force to replace 60-year-old General Vitalis Zvinavashe who retired this month...
Moreover there is serious in-fighting among the senior ranks of the serving (General Vitalis Zvinavashe) and retired (Gen...
Vitalis Zvinavashe in the party...
Not only have Colonel Lionel Dyck and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai exposed the scheme the public naming of parliamentary Speaker Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa and the Commander of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces General Vitalis Gava Zvinavashe (AC Vol 43 No 23) as its authors has made them targets of Mugabe's considerable wrath...
The veterans' frustration is compounded when they learn that commanders such as Air Marshal Perence Shiri and General Vitalis Zvinavashe have commandeered several farms each for personal use...
Vol 43 No 21 |
- CONGO-KINSHASA
Zimbabwean participants include the parliamentary Speaker Emmerson Mnangagwa and Chief of Defence Staff General Vitalis Zvinavashe...
Lieutenant General Vitalis Zvinavashe: Commander of the Zimbabwe Defence Force; commanded troops in Congo; a pioneer of Chinese-style military entrepreneurship Zvinavashe is a director of the majority state-owned Zimbabwe Defence Industries which often sub-contracts to companies owned by the Zvinavashe family such as Zvinavashe Transport Zvinavashe Holdings and Swift Investments; owns a majority stake in Congo's Mhangura Copper mines; the family companies are run by his brother Augustine a business partner of South African sanctions-buster Marc Rich; his other brother Francis was killed in a mysterious car crash in 2000...
Whoever wins the vote the relationships between Oryx Chief Executive Thamer Al-Shanfari Bredenkamp and senior Zimbabwean politicians and soldiers such as Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa and Lieutenant General Vitalis Zvinavashe will win more scrutiny...
The executive apex At the apex of power in Zimbabwe is a civilian-military alliance: President Mugabe who consults with his military commanders on most critical national and regional issues; Mnanagagwa who maintains a key security role (he has kept his intelligence network from his time as Security Minister in the 1980s) despite being appointed speaker of parliament; commander of the defence forces Vitalis Zvinavashe; Army Commander Lieutenant General Constantine Chiwenga; and Air Force Commander Air Marshal Perence Shiri (AC Vol 41 No 22)...
The key players are the ZDF Commander Lieutenant General Vitalis Zvinavashe and Parliamentary Speaker Emmerson Mnangagwa...
