Robert Mugabe, the president of Zimbabwean definitely has no plans to give up power, as he turns 93 saying he has no “acceptable” successor in place.
“The call to step down must come from my party, my party at congress, my party at central committee,” Mugabe said in excerpts from a radio broadcast.
The majority of the people feel that there is no replacement, a successor who to them is acceptable, as acceptable as I am,” he added.Mugabe, who has kept an iron grip on power since Zimbabwe declared independence in 1980, has repeatedly denied reports of health problems, fuelled in part by frequent trips to Dubai and Singapore.He once quipped that he would rule until he turned 100.“Of course if I feel that I can’t do it any more, I will say so to my party so that they relieve me. But for now, I think I can’t say so,” he said.
Inflation is rampant, and in recent months the country has experienced cash shortages, with the government struggling to pay civil servants.
In December, however, Mugabe’s ZANU-PF party endorsed him once again as its candidate for 2018 elections, but rival factions in the party are already jostling to succeed him.
He surprised many in the party in 2014 by naming his wife, Grace, head of its influential women’s wing, spurring rumours that she could be nursing her own presidential ambitions.
And last week, Grace Mugabe, 51, appeared to dash any opponent’s hopes for succeeding him, saying voters would continue to back Mugabe even when he is dead.
“One day when God decides that Mugabe dies, we will have his corpse appear as a candidate on the ballot paper,” she said.
“You will see people voting for Mugabe as a corpse.”
Source: The Guardian
