COUP GIFTS CANNOT BUY REAL LOYALTY
President Emmerson Mnangagwa is a man living in fear. He knows what a coup looks like because he helped lead one in 2017, and he survived a secret one in 2019. Now he wakes up every day afraid that the same thing will happen to him. That is why he is fighting Vice President Constantino Chiwenga, changing the army, and handing out gifts like sweets, hoping the soldiers will protect him.
This week he gave more than one hundred cars to the Zimbabwe Defence Forces. He called it part of a big plan to give the army seven hundred vehicles so they can move better. But we all know this is not about service. This is about survival. When a leader who has failed to fix hospitals, schools, roads, and salaries suddenly finds money for luxury cars, it is a bribe, not a reward. He is buying time, not building a country.
Mnangagwa has been pushing out top commanders, sidelining others, and some have even died in strange ways. This has left fear, anger, and mistrust inside the army and ZANU PF. Instead of peace, this makes the system more unstable. Everyone is watching everyone. No one trusts anyone. This is not leadership. This is a man running from his own shadow.
He and Chiwenga once worked together to remove Robert Mugabe. Now they want to remove each other. Both have army links and war history. Both are using that history like a weapon. They stand on the same grave of the liberation struggle and fight over who must sit on the throne, while the people who freed this country line up for bread, fuel, and medicine.
Next month ZANU PF meets in Mutare. It is not an election meeting, but it is a key step in the bigger fight. Mnangagwa’s people want to use it to push a third term idea and keep him in office until 2030, even when the constitution says he must go in 2028. This is how leaders become rulers and rulers become dictators.
To stop Chiwenga before the 2027 congress, Mnangagwa is trying a full coup-proofing plan. He shifts generals like chairs, promotes loyal friends, and sends others into soft exile through foreign posts or quiet ministries. He mixes soldiers into civilian jobs so that every office has a political spy. This weakens the state but tightens his grip.
He talks non-stop about patriotism, the liberation war, and protecting the Republic. But real patriotism is not about singing old songs while citizens suffer. Real patriotism is making sure teachers can eat, nurses can work, and young people can dream. Mugabe used the same language of history and “sovereignty” and it did not save him when his own comrades turned.
Mnangagwa is also playing the ugly tribal card, placing people from his home areas into key positions so they owe him, not the nation. This breaks the army from inside and plants seeds of hate that will last long after he is gone. Since 2017 the army has had five commanders in eight years, compared to one in fourteen years under Mugabe. That alone shows how shaky things are.
ZANU PF survives because the army holds the gun for it. Without the gun, the party would face the people and lose. So Mnangagwa keeps feeding the generals with cars, money, and titles. But there is one thing he cannot buy: true loyalty. A system built on fear, lies, and bribes always looks strong until the day it suddenly falls. When that day comes, Zimbabwe must stand ready.
