'ED presidency expires in 2020' says coup plotter - this time, will earn hangman's rope

A Spotlight Zimbabwe's report suggesting that Zimbabwe's military are plotting to remove Mnangagwa should be taken very seriously. There is no doubt the junta can see that Mnangagwa's grip on power is slipping and they are under pressure themselves to get someone else with a firmer grip. They staged the November 2017 coup and got away with it; they believe they can do it again. They feel lucky!  

"Mnangagwa's days in office are now numbered," wrote Spotlight Zimbabwe, quoting a military attache. "Most Zimbabweans are not aware that Mnangagwa's tenure as president was discussed before the November coup that toppled Mugabe.

"An elite delegation of military officers travelling with Chiwenga met with Chinese generals, who were told that the current leader will be in power for no more than three years. Our military sees him (Mnangagwa) as a stopgap measure for stability, and he is just but a figurehead with no real power. His presidency expires in 2020, and we are going to see a retired general taking over soon to finish his term, like what Mnangagwa did to Mugabe.

"The military general coming in will then lay the ground for a civilian leader agreed upon by the Joint Operations Command (JOC). They already have four former ministers' names who served under Mugabe in mind. This is the shock you people can't see coming."

According to Spotlight Zimbabwe, "intelligence information at hand also suggests that the army is reportedly not happy with Mnangagwa's failure to fix the economy and that he has allegedly been signing off the country's mineral resources and land assets for a song without their approval."

The very fact that these military thugs expected Mnangagwa to revive the Zimbabwe economy after the November 2017 military coup proves just how naive these thugs are!

The confidence with which Mnangagwa launched his "Zimbabwe is open for business!" mantra soon after the November 2017 coup left no one in any doubt that Mnangagwa and all those around him were 100% cocksure he would revive Zimbabwe's economy. The team expected a flood of investors to answer his call.

Investors had shied away from doing business in Zimbabwe for decades because the country had earned a reputation as a pariah state ruled by corrupt and vote rigging thugs. Therefore to attract investors back into the country it was clearly it was not enough to remove the old dictator Mugabe; Mnangagwa and his supporters were warned of this but would not listen.

The coup in November 2017 was above all about wrestling power from Mugabe who was threatening to hand it over to his wife and making sure power remained in the hands of the JOC junta. There was no way the JOC was going to risk life and limb in staging the coup and then lose power in free, fair and credible elections 8 months latter. The junta had no intention of holding free, fair and credible elections in 2018. None!

But by blatantly rigging last year's elections, Mnangagwa et al confirmed that Zimbabwe was still a pariah state and all hope of any meaningful economic recovery evaporated.

Mnangagwa is a ruthless thug and there is absolutely nothing in his whole life to suggest the man had any common sense. The very fact that his November 2017 coup partners are disappointed he has failed to fix the economy only goes to show just how naive they are to have expected him to accomplish such a feat!

So now the same naive army personal are planning to replace Mnangagwa with a retired general in 2020 who will in turn be replaced by civilian in 2023. No doubt these army thugs are confident their political appointees will each make sure Zanu PF's grip on power will remain unshaken and still deliver the elusive economic revival, Mnangagwa had failed. How naive!

For the umpteenth time, as long as Zimbabwe remains a pariah state ruled by corrupt and vote rigging thugs the country's economic meltdown will only get worse!

There is growing national and international pressure to force this Mnangagwa Zanu PF regime to step down because everyone knows the party rigged last July's elections.

"The final results as announced by the Electoral Commission contained numerous errors and lacked adequate traceability, transparency and verifiability. Finally, the restrictions on political freedoms, the excessive use of force by security forces and abuses of human rights in the post-election period undermined the corresponding positive aspects during the pre-election campaign. As such, many aspects of the 2018 elections in Zimbabwe failed to meet international standards," stated the EU Election Observer Mission final report.

The country's worsen economic situation is helping to pile on the pressure for Zanu PF to step down.

Indeed, those in the army thugs are talking of another coup precisely because they can see that Mnangagwa's hold on power is slipping the worse economic situation gets. The army thugs are naive to believe their political appointee will do any better nor would he/she have time to prove otherwise.

Zimbabwe's military thugs got away with the November 2017 military coup because the world was desperate to see the back of Mugabe; the world will not look so kindly to yet another coup particularly since the last coup failed to end the country's curse of rigged elections and pariah state. Even leaders like President Cyril Ramaphosa of SA who have been bending over backward to give this Zanu PF regime some modicum of credibility by pretending last elections were free, fair and credible, would find it impossible to keep up the pretence!

The truth is Mnangagwa and his November 2017 putsch have failed to get away with that coup because they failed to stop the economic decline. "It is the economy, stupid!" as former US President Bill Clinton would say, that floored JOC junta. Staging a second coup would earn the coup plotters a hangman's rope!