Political commentator Jealousy Mawarire has accused those close to President Emmerson Mnangagwa of exploiting him by urging him to remain in office instead of advising him to step down and rest.
Commenting on a video of Mnangagwa’s speech at the official opening of the 3rd Africa Education Summit 2025 in Victoria Falls on Friday, Mawarire suggested that the President should consider taking a break.
In the video, Mnangagwa told wartime jokes and made humorous gestures while speaking in Shona, leaving foreign delegates in the audience visibly confused. Wrote Mawarire on X:
This isn’t funny any more, zvohwisa vurombo. We have an obligation, as a country, to look after our elders well. Whoever is abusing this man in his current health state, shld be stopped. Surely, addressing international guests in vernacular without an interpreter & telling them silly war time jokes believing one is together with his audience is a reflection of a deeper mental problem. Ngatibatsirei mukuru uyu nekumuzorodza.
Award-winning journalist Hopewell Chin’ono also weighed in on the video clip, saying if the President had people who truly cared about him, they would not allow him to continue in this manner. Chin’ono posted on X:
President Emmerson Mnangagwa now needs to rest. If he had people who genuinely cared about him, they would not let him carry on like this.
It is no longer just an embarrassment to him, but to Zimbabwe as a nation. He is clearly unwell due to old age.
To imagine that some people wanted him to carry on until 2030, when he is like this five years before then, is clearly cruel and opportunistic.
I have always said here that the president is 86 years old, not 82. He was born in 1938—it is clearly self-evident.
He did not know that the national team plays home games in other countries. He did not know that there is no longer a passenger train service between Harare and Bulawayo. It is sad to watch.
Academic, publisher, and political analyst Ibbo Mandaza, Executive Chairman of SAPES Trust, simply reacted with “Yowe” (Oh no!).
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