Kitsepile Nyathi
3 May 2011
Harare — Zimbabwe’s Defence Minister Emmerson Mnangagwa has dismissed weekend reports that army generals have demanded that President Robert Mugabe must prepare to step down by appointing a successor immediately.
The privately owned The Standard newspaper on Sunday reported that the service chiefs, who are known to be fiercely loyal to President Mugabe, told the 87 year old in a teleconference while he was in Singapore last week that they were no longer prepared to support his continued stay in power.
President Mugabe was reportedly told to tone down on talk of having elections this year and choose a successor immediately who will receive the support of the generals.
But Mr Mnangagwa who is said to be leading a Zanu PF party faction positioning itself to succeed Zimbabwe’s only ruler since independence in 1980, has told state television that the report was “nonsense and rubbish.”
Another government spokesman Retired Major Anyway Mutambudzi described the story as “wishful thinking.”
“I am a retired soldier and I am fully aware of security protocol,” he told the state owned Herald newspaper.
“In the first place there was no way service chiefs could choose to discuss a state security issue over the phone when they have access to the president in the joint operations command meetings.”
He said the story was a “pack of lies designed to destabilise Zanu PF and the government of Zimbabwe.”
President Mugabe was in Singapore to collect his wife who is reportedly battling to recover from a dislocated hip.
Zimbabwe is now expected to hold elections in 2013 and the president who has already been chosen by his party to be its candidate will be 89.
His main rival will be the 59 year old Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai whom he has controversially beaten in two elections since 2002.
The last election in 2008 was inconclusive after President Mugabe’s supporters launched a very violent campaign and this led to the formation of a unity government a year later.
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Mugabe ‘Rift’ With Generals Dismissed