Zanu PF Hawks ‘Gearing to Shove Off Ailing Mugabe’

SW Radio Africa (London)

3 May 2011

Leading officials within ZANU PF are reported to be accelerating their plans to dispose of Mugabe as leader and prepare a successor for elections.

Some reports suggest that senior party members have agreed that the ailing octogenerian is too old and unwell to stand in the next election. Mugabe’s health problems are becoming more apparent and he has shuttled between Harare and Singapore for treatment a number of times, this year alone. There are claims he is battling prostrate cancer, but his office has denied this, saying he went to see doctors for an eye operation.

It is believed hat there are two main factions within ZANU PF. One is headed by Defence Minister Emmerson Mnangagwa, a hardliner, and the other that supports Vice-President Joyce Mujuru, regarded by some as a moderate.

Weekend press reports have highlighted infighting in the two camps which is said to have intensified. The Sunday Times of South Africa allege that the Mujuru camp was in talks with the MDC-T, on working together in the post-Mugabe era.

Insiders also allege that Mugabe is giving in to the demands of his top officials. ZANU PF’s recent announcement that elections should be held in 2012 or 2013 is reported to have come about after party hawks demanded Mugabe agree to defer elections. This is a major and unusual climb down for Mugabe as he has been insisting they be held this year.

The Zimbabwe Standard newspaper claimed that security chiefs held a teleconference with Mugabe recently when he was in Singapore and told him to tone down talk of having an election this year. The article went on to say that ZANU PF’s attitude to the poll roadmap indicates that the president agreed that it could be time to appoint a successor.

The newspaper said that the plan is for ZANU PF to have time to sell a new presidential candidate to Zimbabweans. They quoted an informant who said; “Zanu PF’s best chance was in identifying a successor who would be sold to the electorate between now and 2013.”

The Sunday Times quoted a ZANU PF source saying; “He [Mugabe] is no longer in control of his faculties and really people can’t take us seriously if we present him as a candidate. He is looking frail and I tell you, if he participates in an election with Tsvangirai, he will be severely thumped.”

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