Grace Mugabe, Mnangagwa faction bank on conference

The two major Zanu-PF factions battling for supremacy are both banking on next month's annual conference in Victoria Falls becoming elective to advance their respective interests.

While the faction linked to VP Emmerson Mnangagwa wants to use the conference to nudge President Robert Mugabe to announce his retirement and anoint a successor now, the rival G40 wants Mugabe endorsed as life president and First Lady Grace Mugabe taking over from Mnangagwa as the VP.

Both factions want to take advantage of a clause in the party's new constitution that allows for the annual conference to become an elective one.

Mnangagwa's faction wants to rally provinces to endorse him as the party's candidate for 2018, while G40 want to use the structures that Saviour Kasukuwere is establishing throughout the country at the elective conference to further assert their position.