‘Old Man Machiavelli’

Abstract This chapter reveals the principal motives and catalyst for Zimbabwe’s 2017 coup. Zimbabwean coup-makers asserted they were wholly responsible for the preparation and execution of the coup, and they insisted the coup’s motives emanated from domestic politics. There were four main coup motives: the military generals’ disgruntlement with Mugabe’s downgrading of 1970s liberation-struggle actors and values in ZANU PF; Mugabe’s perceived weakening authority in the military, ruling party, and government; some generals’ personal ambitions in politics and the military; and insecurity in the military’s upper ranks caused by conditions of precarious job tenure and fear of criminal prosecution. Gender overlapped with some of these motives, which fortifies the argument in Chapter 2 that coups are acutely gendered operations. The chapter confirms Samuel Finer’s observation that coup motivations are often mixed, and the composite factors generally case specific. The chapter also identifies the coup’s catalyst.