This is Sydney Sekeramayi, the man Robert Mugabe had chosen as his preferred successor

This is Sydney Sekeramayi, the man Robert Mugabe had chosen as his preferred successor. Mugabe revealed this himself on 29 July 2018, on the eve of Zimbabwe’s harmonised elections.

In Dr Blessing-Miles Tendi’s book, The Overthrow of Robert Mugabe, Saviour Kasukuwere speaks about what became known as the Mexico Declaration.

During a visit to Mexico in May 2017, Mugabe reportedly told Kasukuwere that he intended to step down at ZANU-PF’s extraordinary congress in December that year. He instructed Kasukuwere to begin organising young people to campaign for Sekeramayi to succeed him.

Sadly for Sekeramayi, the November 2017 coup changed everything.

Before the coup, he was Zimbabwe’s Minister of Defence. After the coup, he was removed from government.

Today, he serves as chairman of ZANU-PF’s Council of Elders, a body made up of senior party elders whose role is largely advisory. This group of elders also includes former Secretary for Administration, Dydimus Mutasa.

In terms of political scheming in factional warfare, mdara Sekeramai ndiye the real “soft as wool”, not ED.

Both his enemies and allies have often described him as too soft when it comes to factional warfare. There was never a faction organised around his name, while ED was already leading a faction long before he became VP.

TAFFY THEMAN