Zimbabwean billionaire Kudakwashe Tagwirei gets boost as party pushes succession to 2029

Zimbabwean fuel and mining tycoon Kudakwashe Tagwirei has gained more time to build his position in the ruling party after Zanu-PF delayed its leadership congress by two years and endorsed President Emmerson Mnangagwa as its only candidate, a setback for Vice President Constantino Chiwenga, his main rival in the race to succeed the president.

Delegates at Zanu-PF's 23rd National People's Conference in Chinhoyi, about 115 kilometers northwest of Harare, voted on Oct. 17 to move the party's elective congress from 2027 to 2029. They also resolved that Mnangagwa, 84, will remain party president and be its candidate.

"We were due to have a Congress next year but, because of the constitutional amendment that happened," the date had to change, Ziyambi Ziyambi, the party's secretary for legal affairs and the justice minister, said after reading the resolutions. "Our party President and our candidate will be His Excellency, Cde Mnangagwa."

The decision came two days after Mnangagwa appointed Tagwirei to the politburo, the party's top decision-making body, as secretary for economic affairs and investment promotion. Three days earlier he was sworn in as minister of economic development and investment promotion, a new ministry carved out of the finance department. Tagwirei, who entered the Senate on Sept. 1, is widely seen in Harare as the president's preferred heir, although Mnangagwa has never publicly endorsed him.

Congress delay closes a door for Chiwenga

Chiwenga, a former army commander who led the 2017 military takeover that ended Robert Mugabe's 37-year rule, has long been expected to follow Mnangagwa into the presidency. Many in the party had looked to the 2027 congress as the moment the succession would be settled. That timetable is now gone, leaving the vice president to wait at least two more years while Tagwirei settles into senior posts in both the party and the government.

The congress delay follows Constitutional Amendment No. 3, which Mnangagwa signed into law on July 7. It extends presidential and parliamentary terms from five to seven years, pushes the next general election from 2028 to 2030 and replaces the direct vote for president with a ballot of lawmakers at a joint sitting of Parliament. Six liberation war veterans have challenged the law at the Constitutional Court, which reserved judgment on Sept. 22. Critics, including the legal watchdog Veritas, argue the change should have gone to a national referendum. The government opposes the challenge.

Chiwenga used his speech to the conference on Oct. 16, a day after Tagwirei's promotion, to question the party's direction without naming anyone. "Are we not repeating the same mistakes? That is the question we should be asking ourselves," he told delegates, calling for "a brutal and honest self-appraisal." He also said, "Our party belongs to the people, never to individuals," and described party leaders as "merely temporary custodians" of Zanu-PF.

From fuel trader to cabinet minister

Tagwirei, 57, built his fortune through Sakunda Holdings, a fuel trading company he founded in 2005 that came to handle a large share of Zimbabwe's fuel imports through a venture with commodity trader Trafigura. Sakunda financed the government's Command Agriculture program, and Tagwirei later expanded into gold and platinum mining. He is linked to Kuvimba Mining House, a partly state-owned mining group.

The US Treasury sanctioned Tagwirei and Sakunda in August 2020 and designated him again in March 2024 under the Global Magnitsky Act, accusing him of helping corruption in Zimbabwe and moving its proceeds. He denies wrongdoing, and the Zimbabwean government calls the sanctions politically motivated.

Last year Chiwenga gave the politburo a dossier accusing several politically connected businessmen, Tagwirei among them, of looting state resources. Party officials rejected the claims. Tagwirei has denied wanting the presidency and has said Mnangagwa should stay in office until 2030, the position the Chinhoyi conference has now made party policy.

The conference also told the government to speed up laws needed to put the constitutional amendment into effect and called for disciplinary action against Zanu-PF lawmakers who skipped the parliamentary vote on it. The party will now rewrite its own constitution so that its leadership terms match the new national calendar.