HARARE – President Emmerson Mnangagwa has appointed Generation 40 (G40) members into the Zanu PF politburo while keeping the usual tired horses close to him in an apparent political balancing act that betrays a leader keen on stifling factionalism and the dreaded “bhora musango” as he seeks re-election as state president next year.

G40 was a Zanu PF faction which fiercely resisted Mnangagwa’s ascendancy to both party and national presidency.

The once influential group, fronted by exiled former cabinet ministers Jonathan Moyo, Saviour Kasukuwere, Patrick Zhuwao and Walter Mzembi, was virtually disarmed when Mnangagwa muscled his way to the top job in a shock November 2017 military assisted coup that ousted the country’s founding leader President Robert Mugabe.

Webster Shamu, Super Mandiwanzira, and Douglas Mombeshora are some of the politicians with links to G40 who took up posts within the elite Zanu PF policy making committee.

Shamu, once a fanatical Mugabe ally and former party commissar, was widely regarded as Mashonaland West’s godfather prior to the coup.

He reportedly called for a bhora Musango in 2018 after being fired as Mashonaland West provincial affairs minister on suspicion of being a G40 loyalist.

Bhora musango, a Shona expression whose direct translation is “boot the ball off the field of play”, was coined during the height of Zanu PF factional wars when the party faithful was called to reject Mugabe as party presidential candidate while being encouraged to vote party MPs instead.

Mnangagwa appointed Shamu as deputy secretary of the commissariat after the politician had endured four years in the political wilderness.

Mandiwanzira was also appointed secretary for local government, while Douglas Mombeshora was drafted in as secretary for health and child welfare.

Zanu PF spokesperson Christopher Mutsvangwa announced last month that exiled G40 kingpins – Moyo and Zhuwao – were welcome back to the party after the duo issued a public apology for endorsing the opposition after Mugabe’s ouster.

Mnangagwa also kept the majority of the Zanu PF old guard, which consisted of a group of politicians who formed Mugabe’s inner circle prior to the coup.

Obert Mpofu, a onetime Mugabe bootlicker, was reappointed secretary for administration, while finance minister Mthuli Ncube made his debut appointment as the deputy secretary for finance, deputising Patrick Chinamasa.

Mutsvangwa was also retained as secretary for information and publicity, deputised by Chido Sanyatwa, while Paul Mangwana, who was previously the secretary of legal affairs, was reshuffled as secretary of mines, with the current speaker of parliament, Jacob Mudenda, taking over his previous post.

Mnangagwa also appointed his wife Auxillia Mnangagwa as secretary for environment and tourism.

There was no sign of Sydney Sekeramayi in the newly announced politburo with signs the wily leader was still upset over the former defence minister becoming a Mugabe choice for the country’s top job.

Mugabe announced in interviews with the media after his ouster that he intended to announce the veteran politician as his successor.