Zimbabwe: I have no intention to run for a third term - President Mnangagwa

In a video unveiled by leading Zimbabwean newspaper The Sunday Mail, president Emmerson Mnangagwa dismissed allegations he would run for an unconstitutional third term.

“There is not an iota of evidence where Zanu PF or I, as President, has ever expressed the violation of our Constitution,” the 81-year-old said.

“We in Zanu PF are very democratic and we obey the Constitution.”

Zanu PF, the ruling party has reigned over Zimbabwe since independence.

Much attention has been drawn to a slogan heard at Zanu PF rallies in recent months ‘2030 vaMnangagwa vanenge vachipo’ (loosely translated as ‘2030 Mnangagwa will still be president’).

The party secured a supermajority in Parliament last February in disputed by-elections.

This left it closer to changing the constitution if it wishes.

Zimbabwe’s 2013 Constitution limits the presidential term of office to two five-year mandates and establishes a constitutional court. 

A supporter of a hard line and heavyweight of the party in power (Zanu-PF) since independence, Mnangagwa became head of state at the end of a war of succession which opposed him to Grace Mugabe, the wife of president Robert Mugabe who was dismissed in 2017.