Cattle and Chants: Inside Munhumutapa Day, Mnangagwa’s 84th Birthday

Story By Jaime Vheremu

Zimbabwe marked its newest public holiday for the first time on September 15, 2026. Munhumutapa Day, as it is officially known, happens to fall on President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s 84th birthday, and alongside the thousands of youths who gathered for the commemorations, video footage circulating from associated ZANU-PF events shows a now-familiar cast of politically connected businessmen being singled out, praised, and put on public display in support of the ruling party’s “2030 and Beyond” agenda.

The holiday itself was gazetted through Statutory Instrument 148 of 2026, declaring September 15 “every year henceforth” a public holiday named after the historic Munhumutapa title once held by rulers of the pre-colonial Mutapa Empire. Government has framed the day as a celebration of African statecraft and heritage. Critics have been quick to point out that the date coincides precisely with the president’s birthday, and that similar gatherings honouring Mnangagwa on this date have been held informally since 2018. The first official observance drew large crowds, with state media anticipating more than 100,000 attendees, including roughly 30,000 youths, at commemorations in the Mvurwi area of Mashonaland Central Province. The timing has fed into a wider debate in Zimbabwe about the blurring of lines between state institutions, party loyalty, and the personal cult of the presidency, a debate that intensified earlier this year when constitutional changes extended Mnangagwa’s term from 2028 to 2030.

A recurring feature of ZANU-PF’s large set-piece events, and one visible in footage from gatherings around this year’s celebrations, is the practice of parading loyal businessmen in front of the crowd almost as living exhibits of the party’s success. In one recording, a group of prominent businessmen is introduced by name, told to stand, and instructed to lead the crowd in ZANU-PF slogans and chants, including calls of “Pamberi neZanu PF” and slogans tying the president’s name to “2030 and beyond.” The direction to perform the chants is attributed in the footage to the party’s youth-affairs leadership, with Youth Empowerment, Development and Vocational Training Minister Tino Machakaire named as instructing the businessmen to demonstrate their support publicly rather than simply donate quietly. Among the businessmen named or referenced are Kudakwashe “Kuda” Tagwirei, gold dealer Scott Sakupwanya, Wicknell Chivayo, presidential advisor Paul Tungwarara, and Dr Dilesh Nguwaya, men whose fortunes and public profiles have become closely intertwined with the ruling party over the past several years.

Tagwirei’s presence at the event comes weeks after one of the most striking appointments of his career. The founder of Sakunda Holdings, and one of Zimbabwe’s most prominent tenderpreneurs, was sworn in as a senator on September 1, 2026, after being appointed by Mnangagwa under Constitutional Amendment Act No. 3, which expanded the Senate from 80 to 90 seats to accommodate presidentially selected members chosen for their professional skills and expertise. Speaking after his swearing-in, Tagwirei said he hoped to bring his business experience into parliamentary debate to help grow the economy in line with Vision 2030. The appointment drew criticism from commentators who noted the overlap between political loyalty, business interests, and access to state power, and Tagwirei remains under United States sanctions, alongside Mnangagwa himself, over long-standing corruption allegations.

Chivayo, popularly styled “Sir Wicknell,” has built a public reputation over the past two years around an extraordinary run of gift-giving, handing luxury cars, cash and other rewards to musicians, athletes, clergy and other public figures, typically framed as recognition for publicly backing Mnangagwa. Reporting has estimated that by early 2026 he had given away between 220 and 250 vehicles. Recent examples include a 2026 Toyota Fortuner and US$20,000 cash gifted to veteran football coach Sunday Chidzambwa for publicly backing Mnangagwa’s push to remain in office until 2030, and a cash reward raised to US$40,000 plus a car for a musician after he praised the president in a viral clip. Chivayo, whose wealth traces back to a controversial solar-power tender in Gwanda for which he was ultimately acquitted of fraud in 2024, has faced persistent questions from critics, including Bulawayo’s mayor, over the source of the money behind his giving.

Nguwaya, chief executive of Geo Pomona, was at the centre of a separate controversy in the days immediately before Munhumutapa Day. On September 10, 2026, Local Government Minister Daniel Garwe gave Bulawayo’s city council one week to hand its waste-collection operations to Geo Pomona, effectively short-circuiting an independent tender process the city had already begun. Council officials and at least one senator have raised conflict-of-interest concerns, since Nguwaya holds a dual role as Geo Pomona’s executive chairman and as the president’s Special Advisor on Waste Management, the very policy area in which his company was just handed a de facto monopoly. Sakupwanya, a gold and metals trader turned ZANU-PF lawmaker, has built his public profile through the gold trade, while Tungwarara is identified in party circles as a presidential advisor. Both men have appeared alongside Tagwirei and Chivayo at previous high-profile ZANU-PF-linked events, including large donations reported at a lavish 2026 wedding involving Tagwirei’s family that drew widespread public criticism given Zimbabwe’s ongoing economic hardships.

The footage from the gathering also shows several of the businessmen being called forward individually and credited with donating cattle, described in the recording as 84 head from a single donor, part of a running total the emcee put at nearly 600 cattle contributed by the businessmen present. Zimbabwe’s ruling party has a documented history of businessmen and officials donating cattle, land, cash and vehicles at high-profile events tied to the president and his family, including at the wedding referenced above, where one senior official’s family alone reportedly donated 25 pedigree Beefmaster heifers alongside a quarter-million-dollar cash gift. The specific cattle count from this event has not been independently verified by mainstream Zimbabwean outlets at the time of writing and is drawn from the video record of the gathering itself.

Taken together, the Senate appointment, the Bulawayo waste contract, the pattern of car-giving, and the cattle donations reflect something Zimbabwean civil society and international observers have tracked closely for years: a small circle of politically connected businessmen converting public loyalty, expressed through chants, slogans, gifts and donations at events like Munhumutapa Day, into privileged access to state contracts, appointed office and policy influence. Government and party officials describe this as businesses supporting national development and Vision 2030. Critics describe it as patronage politics playing out in full public view, at a moment when many ordinary Zimbabweans continue to face severe economic hardship.