By Staff Reporter
The potential rise of ZANU-PF benefactor Kudakwashe Tagwirei to the presidency could have dire consequences for Zimbabwe, former opposition MP Tendai Biti has said.
Biti has criticised Tagwirei, who has wormed himself into the ruling party after being nominated for the Central Committee by ZANU-PF’s Harare Province.
Former ZANU-PF member and war veteran Blessed Geza claims that Tagwirei’s promotion to the Central Committee is a stepping stone to the presidency, positioning him to succeed President Emmerson Mnangagwa.
Speaking in a recent online discussion, Biti warned that Tagwirei’s ascent would undermine the country’s reform efforts:
“The next president could be Kudakwashe Tagwirei, and that would be a total disaster. The rise of this blank, totally vacuous comrado elite—so proximate to the seat of power—spells trouble for Zimbabwe,” said Biti.
Former opposition MP Tendai Biti
Tagwirei, through his proxies, has secured lucrative government contracts, including a multimillion-dollar deal to construct the Mbudzi Interchange flyover.
His business empire has expanded into mining, and he holds a near-monopoly in Zimbabwe’s fuel sector.
Additionally, he oversees the controversial Command Agriculture programme and chairs the Land Tenure Implementation Committee.
His company, Sakunda Holdings, was implicated in the misappropriation of $3 billion from the Ministry of Agriculture between 2017 and 2018.
The United States of America sanctioned Tagwirei for allegedly enabling corruption among senior government officials.
Though Tagwirei has remained silent, his name continues to circulate as a potential successor to Mnangagwa amid ZANU-PF’s internal factional battles.
Biti further argued that the decline of liberation-era war veterans has created a vacuum, allowing opportunistic figures like Tagwirei—derisively termed “zvigananda” (parasites)—to exploit their proximity to power for political gain:
“The vacuum left by the departure of the liberation generation is being filled by parasitic comrades with no social base, no shame, and no restraint—individuals who conflate themselves with the state. Some are being fast-tracked to the presidium,” said Biti.