Beware of death on road to presidency, warns Mugabe

Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe, left, and his wife Grace chant the party's slogan during a solidarity rally in Harare. Zimbabwe's president said he fired his deputy and longtime ally for scheming to take power, including by consulting witch doctors. Now Mugabe's wife appears poised for the role. AP Photo

Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe, left, and his wife Grace chant the party's slogan during a solidarity rally in Harare. Zimbabwe's president said he fired his deputy and longtime ally for scheming to take power, including by consulting witch doctors. Now Mugabe's wife appears poised for the role. AP Photo

Published Nov 8, 2017

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Harare - Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe

said on Wednesday the route to leadership was long and full of

"pitfalls and death", as he accused his fired deputy and former

protege of showing impatience in his bid to succeed him.

Addressing supporters at the headquarters of his ZANU-PF

party in Harare, 93-year-old Mugabe accused Emmerson Mnangagwa

of consulting witchdoctors and prophets as part of a campaign to

secure the presidency.

Mnangagwa, who was sacked by Mugabe on Monday and expelled

from the ruling Zanu-PF party on Wednesday, said he had fled

Zimbabwe because of death threats and was safe.

"My sudden departure was caused by incessant threats on my

person, life and family by those who have attempted before

through various forms of elimination including poisoning," he

said in a statement on Wednesday.

The head of the influential war veterans association, Chris

Mutsvangwa, said that Mnangagwa, 75, would travel to

Johannesburg in neighbouring South Africa "very soon".

Mugabe said Mnangagwa, nicknamed "Crocodile", had made the

same mistakes as Joice Mujuru, who was the president's deputy

for 10 years until she was fired in 2014.

"You should not try to say because the journey is long, then

I should take a short cut to arrive quickly. The road has lions.

There are pitfalls. There is death, beware," he said.

"There is no short cut to being the leader of the people.

Just as there was no short cut to our independence."

ZANU-PF would move to discipline Mnangagwa's

"co-conspirators", Mugabe added.

Mnangagwa has not been seen in public since his dismissal

from government but his ally Mutsvangwa said he was "safe and

beyond the reach of the assassins".

Mutsvangwa ruled out trying to remove Mugabe by force and

said war veterans, who had publicly backed Mnangagwa and broke

ranks with the president last year, would form a broad front

with the opposition in elections next year.

"We don't want to abuse the military to resolve a political

problem. We don't want them to become the arbiter of political

power," Mutsvangwa said.

He was critical of Mugabe's wife Grace, who looks set to

become vice president after a special ZANU-PF congress in

December. "This is a coup by marriage certificate ....and it

will be resisted," he said. 

Reuters

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