Zimbabwe's Mnangagwa says Zanu PF legislators plotting to impeach him

Harare ‑ Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa on Wednesday, said he has unearthed a plot to impeach him soon after the elections by legislators from his own Zanu-PF party.

The elections are set to be held on July 30, where he will be tightly contested against MDC Alliance leader Nelson Chamisa.

Mnangagwa told a Zanu-PF healing and reconciliation workshop in Harare that disgruntled parliamentary candidates from the ruling party were plotting to impeach him soon after the elections.

He said from the intelligence they had gathered, it was members who were sympathetic to former president Robert Mugabe. Mugabe was toppled from power last November through a coup.

“Some of those who have won these primary elections have two minds. They have gone to join the Zanu PF wagon using various tricks, money included, to be elected with a possible view that once in Parliament, they will band together and move a motion of impeachment," he said.

“There are two things I would want you to know. First, you must realise that the Constitution provides the basis of impeachment and such basis must be fulfilled before impeachment proceedings begin,” he added.

“Second, our Constitution provides a tool, an instrument to chuck out from Parliament any member who we think is not Zanu-PF anymore.”

The two-day workshop was meant to mend rifts caused by the party’s recent chaotic primary elections, which left some Zanu-PF big shots nursing political wounds after they failed to defend their seats, amid allegations of rigging.

In November, Mugabe resigned after pressure from thousands of people who marched against him, as well as a move by parliamentarians to impeach him.

African News Agency/ANA