Mugabe’s allies fear ousting him could see them sidelined

President Mugabe taking some precious time out during a public event

President Robert Mugabe’s oldest allies favour letting the 91-year-old remain in office indefinitely rather than trying to oust him even as Zimbabwe’s economy collapses, members of the decision-making body of the ruling party said.

While frustrated by his resistance to changes needed to rescue the economy, they’re concerned that if pushed out of office he would place allies, including his wife and younger politicians, at the head of government, sidelining them, three members of the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front’s Politburo said.

They asked not to be identified because the discussions aren’t public.

Doubts about Mugabe’s competence surfaced last month when he read the wrong speech at the opening of parliament without realising he had delivered the same address a few weeks earlier.

While Zimbabwe’s economy is stagnating, with slumping consumer demand pushing the country into deflation and 83% of government expenditure going on civil servant wages, Mugabe this year reversed decisions by his ministers to cancel state worker bonuses and trim the capital’s workforce by 5,000 people.

“Given the level of factionalism in ZANU-PF, there is no force strong enough to oust him,” Mark Rosenberg, Africa director at New York-based Eurasia Group, said by phone from Johannesburg. “If he doesn’t die in office and he steps down beforehand, he will try to control the process as much as possible and will probably succeed.”

The southern African nation faces its worst economic crisis since its virtual collapse in 2008, when inflation soared to 500 billion percent, prompting the government to abandon its currency in favour of the use of foreign exchange including the U.S. dollar in early 2009.

City residents are now subjected to power cuts between 4 a.m. and 10 p.m. on an almost daily basis and revenue of companies ranging from fast food outlet operators to beer-makers and sausage producers has slumped, deepening deflation, which has now persisted for 10 consecutive months.

On 2.8% price fall in August, Harare-based economist, John Robertson said: “We’re being taken to a very, very low point; No one seems able to announce policies that may provide at least partial relief for fear of being contradicted by the president.”