𝗠𝗡𝗔𝗡𝗚𝗔𝗚𝗪𝗔 𝗜𝗦 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗣𝗔𝗦𝗧. 𝗧𝗛𝗔𝗧’𝗦 𝗪𝗛𝗬 𝗖𝗔𝗕𝟯 𝗜𝗦 𝗗𝗘𝗔𝗗.

𝗠𝗡𝗔𝗡𝗚𝗔𝗚𝗪𝗔 𝗜𝗦 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗣𝗔𝗦𝗧. 𝗧𝗛𝗔𝗧’𝗦 𝗪𝗛𝗬 𝗖𝗔𝗕𝟯 𝗜𝗦 𝗗𝗘𝗔𝗗.

The one mistake ED made was that, because he knew he was unpopular (a 50% President), he created parallel structures within ZANU PF to push his agenda and consolidate power. In doing so, he circumvented the party's structures, manipulated processes, and even sidelined the old guard.

Likewise, out of fear that the army expected him to honour his promise that Chiwenga would replace him, he purged sections of the military. Since then, nearly 50 high-ranking battle-hardened military leaders have died under oftentimes mysterious circumstances.

In an effort to circumvent government systems and processes, he created a Parallel Cabinet of advisers and businesspeople to whom he allocated tenders and entrusted with government work through his office.

In the process, this Parallel Cabinet became powerful and wealthy through tenders, public-private partnerships and appropriating government assets. As they enriched themselves and monopolised opportunities, they evolved into a cartel that shut out other businesses—including military-aligned businesses—from key sectors of the economy.

As a result, this clique around the President now uses handouts in the form of cars and money to co-opt remaining generals, key ZANU PF leaders, government officials, MPs, and influencers in order to cultivate support for an unpopular President and his CAB3 retirement plan.

However, despite lavishing kingmakers and protectors of the realm with gifts and patronage to co-opt them, the problem is that the CAB3sters refuse to empower them with the deals and business opportunities that made them [the CAB3sters] wealthy.

What this has created is a circle of powerful and influential people who facilitate for the President and his cartel to make money in exchange for handouts.

However, this relationship is merely transactional and individual based, hence it has not cultivated loyalty or any meaningful institutional backing.

The powerful men doing the facilitating are no longer content with handouts alone; THEY WANT MORE — access to the deals and opportunities that made the CAB3sters wealthy — and they know that getting there means getting rid of the cartel around President that is gluttonously closing everyone else out.

It’s obvious too for them to see that the time to strike is now, because at 87 years old, the President is in visible decline and may soon die or become politically redundant.

Moreover, given his lack of popularity, the growing resistance to CAB3, and what many perceive as his weak institutional support within ZANU PF, government, and the army, they increasingly see him and his Parallel Cabinet as the past. This is why they are beginning to align themselves with what they view as the future.

Everyone with influence and power also realises that Mnangagwa represents the sunset, and they are now waiting for the dawn. This inevitably means that CAB3 has become an open tomb that only those who are not perceptive will choose to be entombed in.

Even though there may still appear to be support for the President, the warning from retired generals to parliamentarians—that they should consider CAB3 and our constitution with a view to tomorrow—has altered the calculation. It is wiser to align with the future than to be buried alongside the old man and his CAB3.

Mnangagwa is the past, and the future is rising in the form of a younger, stronger, 69-year-old former general who is offering the possibility of renewal and, more importantly, a redistribution of opportunities in a rising Zimbabwe.

Chiwenga is backed by an army he led in Mozambique, the Congo, Angola, Sudan, Equatorial Guinea, and Somalia. Through these missions, he trained, mentored, and promoted many of the leaders who remain within that army today. Many passed through military institutions he helped establish, while others gathered intelligence and defended the nation on secret missions that remain known only to those in uniform.

These men, unlike those receiving handouts from Mnangagwa and his Parallel Cabinet, are loyal to a commander who led them into difficult theatres of operation and taught them much of what they know. Not only are these men loyal, but many are willing to die for their comrades and, more importantly, for their commanders.

More critically, they have not forgotten that their leader was poisoned, nor have they forgotten what they regard as the decimation of their ranks through the inexplicable deaths of senior military figures during the Mnangagwa era.

In the final analysis never forget that most members of the Parallel Cabinet who were given body guards are guarded by men with backgrounds in military intelligence and a CIO built by Bonyomgwe who was also a military man led by General Chiwenga. As I have said before, those men are loyal, and they do not forget.

Trust me, CAB3 is dead.

Written by Rutendo Matinyarare, Chairman of ZASM.