Speaking in Harare after touring cement manufacturer PPC
Zimbabwe’s US$82 million milling plant, the 78-year old Zanu PF leader
wise-cracked that his successor would need to experience the rough times that
he went through in the last few months in power of the late former president
Robert Mugabe to become the country’s next chief executive.
The comments came as some ruling party bigwigs are said to
be positioning themselves for his job — although Zanu PF insists that he must
be given more time to fulfil the electoral promises that he made when he
succeeded Mugabe via a stunning and widely-supported military coup in November
2017.
The jovial Mnangagwa said Vice President Kembo Mohadi, who
introduced him as the guest of honour at the function, had spoken a lot about
him — and so, he too wanted to say “things” about his other second-incommand.
“When I became president and made him my deputy, he said to me, ‘my brother, do
you have some body who will become president when you go’. I said to him, ‘I
have spent just six months in the office and you are already talking about me
going? So what do you have in mind?’
“He said, ‘I have done most of the things you have done’. I
asked him to count them and he said ‘I am a war veteran. I am an MP. I have
served as minister in several ministries. In particular my brother I have been
minister of State Security like yourself and I have been, though for a short
period, Defence minister like yourself. Now I am vice president like you were’.
“Then I said there are a few things you have forgotten. You
need to be poisoned,” Mnangagwa said to much laughter among the gathered crowd.
This comes after Mnangagwa asserted that he was poisoned by his political foes
at a Zanu PF youth inter-face rally at Pelandaba Stadium in Gwanda, in August
2017 — which saw himfalling seriously ill and subsequently being airlifted to
Johannesburg for emergency treatment.
Later, he also revealed how he had spent two days lying
unconscious in a South African hospital, as doctors battled to save his life.
Speaking to American cable television network CNN in September 2018, Mnangagwa
said he was a whisker away from death then, had it not been for the timely
intervention of his other deputy, Rtd General Constantino Chiwenga — who
organised a helicopter to rush him to Gweru Military Hospital, where doctors recommended his immediate airlifting to South
Africa.
“How did they save you? What was the process?” Mnangagwa
was asked by his probing CNN host, Christiane
Amanpour. “After two
days of being unconscious … they said the level of poisoning was very high,
something like 31 percent. It was reduced in six days to 11 percent.
“And I had something like three to four hours of life (had
I not been immediately rushed to South Africa). I would have died of cardiac
failure.
“The research which was done by various doctors in South
Africa, in Australia and other places … where tests were done, called it metal
poisoning — arsenic metal poisoning. And they narrowed it as to where it could have come from,” Mnangagwa also said then.
“My last review says the level of poisoning in my system is
now under three percent,” he added. In December 2018, while addressing
worshippers who packed the Zimbabwe International Trade Fair (ZITF) Hall in
Bulawayo for a church gathering organised for the president, Mohadi also joked
along the same lines — remarking that he had travelled the same road as
Mnangagwa, a feat that made him think that he was destined to lead the country in future.
Mnangagwa was the guest of honour at the ceremony which was
organised by the Faith for the Nation Campaign — a grouping of
inter-denominational churches — to thank God for the peaceful transition from
Mugabe’s administration to his. “I have been minister of National State
Security, minister of Defence … I think I am following in your footsteps.
“If that’s the criteria to be where you are, I think I am
on track,” Mohadi told Mnangagwa then — who before he became vice president,
served as State Security, Justice and Defence minister.
But, just as he did on Thursday, Mnangagwa said at the time
that Mohadi needed to also withstand rallies where jibes targeted at him were
thrown around during Mugabe’s last few months in high office.
“My VP said he has been the minister of State Security,
minister of Defence and is following my footsteps. “He needs nine interface
rallies. He also needs to be a border jumper,” he said then to similarly huge
applause and much laughter.
This comes as Zanu PF has reiterated that Mnangagwa will
complete two terms in office — seemingly bolting the door against ambitious
party bigwigs said to be interested in his job.
It also comes as the demons of factionalism that gutted
Zanu PF during Mugabe’s last few years in power have returned to the party with
a vengeance.
Speaking to the media last month, acting Zanu PF
spokesperson Patrick Chinamasa said Mnangagwa needed to be given more time to
fulfil the promises he made when he replaced Mugabe as Zimbabwe’s new leader in
November 2017.
Chinamasa also said emphatically that Zanu PF wanted Mnangagwa
to continue serving in office beyond his current term, which ends in 2023.
“We say this because we do not want politics where things
are started and are not finished. You cannot start on a serious development
path or project and expect it to be completed in one year or one term.
“We want the president to fulfil what he set out to do when
he first won the elections in 2018.In Zanu PF, we are very clear at all levels
of the party. We need uninterrupted development in Zimbabwe.
“We need peace and tranquillity so that we can have
political stability and chart our own development path,” Chinamasa said then. Daily
News
0 comments:
Post a Comment