Mnangagwa's son to take over dad's parliamentary seat

Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa's eldest son, Emmerson Junior, has been tipped to take over his father's Chirumanzu-Zibagwe parliamentary seat.

The new constitution provides that if an MP is appointed Vice President, they cease to become legislators. They can sit in Parliament, be leader of the house or conduct some selected parliamentary business, but they cannot vote.

March 27 has been set as the date for the by-election. It will be held concurrently with the Mt Darwin one which fell vacant when deposed VP Joice Mujuru assumed her post on September 11, 2013.

Impeccable sources told The Zimbabwean that though under normal circumstances Zanu-PF would conduct primary elections to choose the new candidate, Mnangagwa Snr, who is currently the Acting President, has ordered the provincial structures to by-pass the process and field his son as the party's candidate.

Mnangagwa Jnr occupies Eastclare Farm Plot 8, about 20km outside Kwekwe along Mvuma Road. On 2 June his ownership of the property hit headlines in the media when it went up in smoke due to a suspected electrical fault.

In the Midlands province, the VP's eldest son is already enjoying a political life in the provincial executive as the youth league's Kwekwe representative.

"There is no one who is canvassing for support to become the Zanu-PF candidate for Chirumanzu-Zibagwe because Mudhara (oldman) Mnangagwa has said his eldest son should succeed him. Nobody has had the courage to oppose that," said an inside source.

Another source also indicated that Mnangagwa had always indicated that he would want his close family member to take over in the constituency.

"Initially Mnangagwa had wanted his wife, Auxilia, to take over the post but that was complicated by the fact that she is already senator for the Kwekwe-Chirumanzu constituency," said the source.

Cornelius Mupereri, the Zanu-PF Midlands provincial secretary for information and publicity, said a decision on who would stand in the by-election, would be made on Saturday when the provincial coordinating committee sits.

Pressed on the chances of Mnangagwa Jnr being selected, he insisted that if "people want him, then it shall be."

The Midlands PCC is presided over by acting provincial chairperson, Kizitho Chivamba, a long-time ally of Mnangagwa who took over the post last November after Jason Machaya, a Mujuru sympathiser, was booted out. The majority of the committee members are Mnangagwa supporters.