The Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) has disowned letters that purported to recall Bulawayo Mayor David Coltart and several of the party’s legislators, calling them baseless and raising fresh questions over who can act in the name of the divided opposition party.

According to CITE, NewZimbabwe.com and The Zimbabwean, the letters are dated 7 October 2026 and claim that the officials have ceased to be CCC members. CITE and The Herald report that they were addressed to Parliament and to Local Government Minister Daniel Garwe, with CITE adding that Speaker Jacob Mudenda and Senate President Mabel Chinomona were also named as recipients.

Reports differ on how many people were targeted. CITE says the letters named Coltart and three MPs: Surrender Kapoikilu (Bulawayo Central), Corban Madzivanyika (Mbizo) and Togarepi Zivai Mhetu (Epworth North). NewZimbabwe.com and The Zimbabwean list a fifth name, Bulawayo senator Ivumile Kucaca Phulu. The Herald reports Coltart and three MPs without naming them.

In a statement, CCC interim national spokesperson Nqobizitha Mlilo said the recalls have no factual, political or legal basis and do not reflect the party’s position. He told the affected representatives to continue their duties and said their tenure is secure until at least 2030.

The party said preliminary internal investigations had identified the people behind the letters, but it did not name them. It said their conduct may amount to contempt of court and that legal counsel had been briefed.

CITE and The Zimbabwean report that Sengezo Tshabangu, who describes himself as the party’s interim secretary-general, said the letters did not come from the party and were “not true”. Both outlets also report that the letters were issued by Mbuso Siso, who describes himself as interim treasurer-general and who withdrew a High Court challenge to his removal by Tshabangu in April. AllInZimbabwe has not independently verified who sent the letters and has not obtained comment from Mr Siso.

None of the reports sets out the legal basis for the recalls or establishes who inside the CCC is entitled to initiate one, a question that remains unresolved while rival factions claim leadership of the party.

Sources: CITE, NewZimbabwe.com, The Zimbabwean, The Herald.

President Emmerson Mnangagwa has split Zimbabwe’s finance ministry in two and appointed businessman Kudakwashe Tagwirei to run the new economic development and investment promotion portfolio, the Herald, Nehanda Radio and ZimLive reported.

Chief Secretary to the President and Cabinet Martin Rushwaya announced the changes on Thursday 8 October, saying they took immediate effect under Section 104(1) of the Constitution. Professor Mthuli Ncube was reassigned as Minister of Finance. According to the Herald, he keeps responsibility for national budgeting, public finance management, resource mobilisation and macro-economic policy, while Tagwirei will focus on economic growth, attracting investment and strengthening productive sectors.

Tagwirei, who heads Sakunda Holdings, remains under sanctions in both Washington and London, according to ZimLive and Nehanda Radio. Both outlets report that the United States first sanctioned him in August 2020 and that Britain followed in July 2021. They say he stayed on the US blacklist under the Global Magnitsky programme when Washington ended its wider Zimbabwe sanctions programme in March 2024.

The US Treasury alleged he used his relationship with senior officials to win state contracts and preferential access to foreign currency. The UK government alleged that Sakunda redeemed Treasury bills at up to ten times their official value. Nehanda Radio notes that the Zimbabwean government and Zanu PF have repeatedly rejected Western sanctions as politically motivated.

ZimLive argued that a minister tasked with courting foreign money may find investors from the US and UK legally or reputationally unable to deal with him. Nehanda Radio said the government statement did not explain how any conflict of interest between his private business and his public role would be managed.

Both outlets link the promotion to speculation over Mnangagwa’s succession, noting Tagwirei’s rapid rise from Zanu PF donor to presidential adviser, central committee member and, last month, senator.

Sources: The Herald, Nehanda Radio, ZimLive.

Zimbabwe has a new public holiday, and it falls on President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s birthday.

A government notice gazetted on Wednesday declares that 15 September “every year henceforth” shall be a public holiday known as Munhumutapa Day. NewZimbabwe.com reports the declaration was made through Statutory Instrument 148 of 2026, cited as the Public Holidays and Prohibition of Business (Declaration of Public Holiday) Notice, 2026. ZimLive described it as a special government gazette issued the same day.

The name is drawn from the Munhumutapa, or Mutapa, empire — the Shona state that emerged in the 15th century, controlled gold-producing territory across much of what is now Zimbabwe and Mozambique, and traded with merchants from the Indian Ocean coast before declining in the 18th century.

Mnangagwa turns 84 on the day. NewZimbabwe.com describes the holiday as a Zanu PF initiative, and reports that 15 September has been marked by Zanu PF youths in honour of his presidency since 2018.

The gazette arrived alongside remarks the President made at the Sanganai/Hlanganani World Tourism Expo in Masvingo, where he suggested he would still be in office nine years from now — which would take him to 2035. The two outlets that carried the comment quote it differently. ZimLive has him saying that in nine years, after the event had rotated through other provinces, “I will still be in power”. NewZimbabwe.com quotes him telling the audience: “So when we come back after nine years, having hosted this event in other provinces, you will then give me an update of what you have planned. I will still be around; I do not know about you.” Both report the line drew laughter and applause.

Mnangagwa’s stay has already been extended once. Constitutional Amendment No. 3, signed into law earlier this year, stretched presidential and parliamentary terms from five years to seven and pushed the next national election from 2028 to 2030. He remains barred from a third term under the current constitution.

He came to power in November 2017 after the military intervention that ended Robert Mugabe’s 37-year rule.

Sources: ZimLive; NewZimbabwe.com.