Advocate Mpofu: PV Sibanda Politburo Appointment Is Mnangagwa’s “Last Panic Button”

The appointment of former Zimbabwe Defence Forces (ZDF) commander Phillip Valerio Sibanda to ZANU-PF’s politburo is a sign of panic from President Emmerson Mnangagwa, prominent lawyer Advocate Thabani Mpofu has said.

Sibanda’s appointment was announced on Monday, 11 May, by ZANU-PF spokesperson Christopher Mutsvangwa. The party said Mnangagwa made the decision “exercising his mandate” under the ZANU-PF constitution, and that it takes immediate effect.

It is Mnangagwa’s second attempt to bring Sibanda into the Politburo. The retired general was first named an ex officio member on 29 October 2023 during the party’s 20th National People’s Conference in Gweru.

Less than three weeks later, the appointment was reversed after lawyers and civil society groups argued it breached Section 208 of the 2013 Constitution, which bars serving security service members from partisan politics. Presidential spokesperson George Charamba said at the time that the decision would be deferred until Sibanda retired.

Sibanda has since retired from the Zimbabwe Defence Forces.

Reacting to the latest move, Mpofu wrote on X that Mnangagwa “has been pressing political panic buttons with his many appointments and disappointments in recent days” — the kind not expected from a president in his second term.

He described the Sibanda appointment as Mnangagwa’s “last panic appointment”.

“There is very little strategy surrounding either its timing or substance — never mind the fact that it has been attempted before,” Mpofu said. “The appointment depicts a man who is no longer sure whether he must run or hide. The centre has let loose and control has been forfeited.”

Mpofu argued the move shows that Mnangagwa has no preferred successor among the “touted heirs to the throne” — including Sibanda himself.

“PV himself must view himself as an object of use — a barricade to the door only used at night, or rather a condom only used outside the bounds of safe intercourse,” he wrote.

“The appointment effectively says, fight each other to the death — without mercy — because I don’t know how to fix this.”

Sibanda’s appointment comes amid heightened succession speculation inside ZANU-PF, with Mnangagwa now in his second and final term under the constitution.

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ZDF Ex-commander Phillip Valerio Sibanda Appointed To ZANU PF Politburo Tagwirei’s appointment to Cabinet unchristian and built on political skulduggery – Mpofu