Ziyambi Ziyambi says 2017 coup was a joint effort and not the Army alone, masterful rebuttal of Chiwenga - a Pyrrhic victory, at best. W Mukori

 When Justice Minister Ziyambi Ziyambi stood before the ZANU PF Politburo on Tuesday to present a formal rebuttal to Vice President Constantino Chiwenga's allegations, he did not merely read a document. 

He delivered a declaration of political war disguised as a legal defence. 

The text, couched in the language of constitutionalism and party discipline, was in reality a carefully choreographed attempt by President Emmerson Mnangagwa to reassert control, criminalise dissent, and finally dismantle the uneasy military-civilian compact that has defined Zimbabwean politics since the coup of 2017.

This was not just a statement of defence; it was a manifesto of dominance. For the first time since assuming power, Mnangagwa has chosen to confront his deputy head on, abandoning the fiction of unity that has held ZANU PF together through a fragile coexistence of mutual suspicion. In doing so, he has signalled that the long-postponed reckoning between the civilian leadership and the military elite has arrived.

By assigning the justice minister and not a political aide to deliver the rebuttal, Mnangagwa elevated what was previously an internal quarrel into a formal institutional matter. Ziyambi's dual role as both cabinet minister and party Secretary for Legal Affairs provided the perfect vehicle through which to convert a political contest into a legal and ideological indictment. 

What began as an exchange of accusations within the presidium has thus been transformed into a matter of state legitimacy.

This tactic is as deliberate as it is effective. 

Mnangagwa understands that within ZANU PF, disputes resolved through the party's disciplinary mechanisms can be managed, contained, and erased from memory. 

But once framed as constitutional breaches, as treasonous, inciteful, or subversive, they assume a permanence that allows him to deploy the full coercive machinery of the state. In short, Ziyambi's rebuttal was a legal trap masquerading as an act of clarification.

At the heart of Mnangagwa's counteroffensive lies a profound act of political revisionism. 

Chiwenga's alleged letter sought to reclaim authorship of the 2017 coup, Operation Restore Legacy, as a military intervention that rescued both the nation and the party from the clutches of Robert Mugabe's dynastic ambitions. That narrative has always been Chiwenga's moral claim to power, that he was the midwife of the Second Republic, and therefore its rightful heir.

Ziyambi's rebuttal dismantles this claim with surgical precision. 

It reframes the coup not as a military rescue mission, but as a collective national effort encompassing the party, ordinary citizens, and patriotic business figures such as Kudakwashe Tagwirei. 

By distributing ownership of the event, the rebuttal dilutes the military's monopoly on legitimacy. 

The military becomes a participant, not the protagonist, in Zimbabwe's political rebirth.

This is a masterstroke of political narrative control. Mnangagwa is rewriting the central myth of his presidency, recasting himself not as a beneficiary of military benevolence, but as the chosen leader of a broad-based patriotic movement. 

In doing so, he shifts the moral centre of power away from the barracks and back to the State House. It is, in essence, a coup against the memory of a coup.

Perhaps the most striking feature of Ziyambi's document is its relentless invocation of criminal language. 

Chiwenga's conduct and claims are described as treasonous, inciteful, and reminiscent of the events of November 2017. 

The message is clear: criticism of Mnangagwa is no longer mere disloyalty, it is a threat to national security.

This shift from political to criminal vocabulary is not merely semantic. 

It signals that Mnangagwa intends to move the battlefield from the party's internal structures to the courts and security apparatus. 

By framing Chiwenga's alleged actions as subversive, the president is constructing a legal pretext for his neutralisation, whether through political isolation, judicial harassment, or eventual prosecution.

This is a tactic borrowed from Mnangagwa's long apprenticeship under Mugabe, the weaponisation of legality. Where Mugabe deployed revolutionary legitimacy to destroy rivals, Mnangagwa uses constitutionalism and the veneer of order. 

His genius lies in transforming repression into the language of rule of law.

Another revealing aspect of the rebuttal is its vigorous defence of the businessmen whom Chiwenga reportedly accused of corruption and undue influence, - Kudakwashe Tagwirei, Wicknell Chivhayo, Pedzisai “Scott” Sakupwanya, and Delish Nguwaya. 

These figures, long accused of profiteering from state contracts and proximity to power, are recast by Ziyambi as patriotic benefactors who sacrifice for the party and contribute to national development.

This rhetorical inversion serves a dual purpose. 

First, it sanitises Mnangagwa's inner circle of financiers, transforming accusations of corruption into acts of philanthropy.

Masterful as Ziyambi Ziyambi rebuttal was did not touch Justice George Chiweshe’s ruling after the 2017 military coup that it was “justified, legal and constitutional.” The judgement was nonsense because Justice Chiweshe did quote the Chapter and verse in the constitution that allowed anyone other than The Commander In Chief to deploy the Army because there is such chapter and verse. The Second Republic accepted the judgement because gave it legitimacy.  

The core of Ziyambi’s rebuttal is that it was not the decision of General Chiwenga and his coArmy Officers alone to deploy the Army then this is making a monkey of Justice Chiweshe’s judgement. He said the Army was justified to stage the coup. Is he going to revise that and said the army and  “collective national effort encompassing the party, ordinary citizens, and patriotic business figures such as Kudakwashe Tagwirei” was justified in staging the coup?

The Second Republic was never going to last because it was built on lies; it does not have any legitimacy, never had. Zanu PF rigged the 2018 and 2023 elections and thus wasted its real chances to redeem itself! 

The people of Zimbabwe were sick to their back teeth of the vote rigging Zanu PF dictatorship and the dictator Robert Mugabe himself. The welcome the coup for no other reason than that is finally booted out the dictator. They should have paused to think of the morning after the coup because it was clear the coup was removing one dictator only to replace him with another dictator. 

 The penny dropped soon enough and many Zimbabweans have regretted going out in the street in support of the military coup. They have name 17 November 2017 “Dzungu Day” (Panic or Folly Day). Of course, it was foolish to celebrate the swapping one dictator for another!

Still, the people have learned an important lesson because when Blessed “Bombshell” Geza called out for the people to support his so-called Geza Revolution seeking to replace Mnangagwa with Chiwenga, only a few heeded the call. As much as millions want to see the back of Mnangagwa they are weary of repeating the 2017 folly of swapping one dictator for another. 

VP Chiwenga is just as corrupt, incompetent and vote rigging thug as Mnangagwa and Mugabe. He is making a big song and dance about corruption now only win the people’s support in the factional war within Zanu PF. Whoever prevails we know the nation will still have a dictator! Fcuk that!