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President Mugabe

Zvamaida Murwira Harare Bureau
President Mugabe is aware that certain people want to succeed him but will not impose a successor as he prefers that the people choose their next leader.
The Head of State and Government and Commander-in-Chief of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces said this in an interview with film-maker Roy Agyemang for a BBC documentary that was aired on Saturday evening.
Asked if he had any person he favoured to take over from him when he retires, President Mugabe said: “I have people in mind who would want to be. But I have looked at them. I have not come to any conclusion as to which one, really, should be. I leave it to the choice of people.

“Perhaps when we get close to the election I will have some in mind.”
President Mugabe reiterated his long-held position that leaders should come from the people.

“It must be leadership that derives from the people, chosen by the people, goes back to the people, listens to the people and is guided by the demands of the people,” he said.

There is widespread speculation that Vice President Joice Mujuru, and Justice Minister and Zanu-PF secretary for legal affairs Cde Emmerson Mnangagwa are the front runners to succeed President Mugabe.

But earlier this month President Mugabe said neither of the two had an automatic ticket to take over leadership of the ruling party and country, as the people were the ultimate deciders on who was best fit to be President.

Addressing the Gushungo clan at Murombedzi Growth Point, President Mugabe said Presidential aspirants would be elected through the Zanu-PF congress.
President Mugabe said VP Mujuru and Cde Mnangagwa were not the only people who could take over from him as the pool of potential leaders was large.

In the BBC interview, President Mugabe said Britain — which funded creation of the MDC in 1999 through the Westminster Foundation to effect regime change in ZImbabwe — had degenerated over the years.

“What has happened to Britain?
“They have grown small in mind, small in intellect, that wisdom which the likes of Churchill had, where is it?” he asked.
“You can’t see it at all. You can’t see it in people now with gay habits — shame on them. I pity the one lady I admire, the Queen, that she is in these circumstances. I’m sure down deep she must be groaning (at) the loss of values in Britain.

“They’ve gone to the dogs. No respect, gone.”
President Mugabe also castigated indigenous farmers leasing their land to white farmers.

He said while the number of the culprits doing it was small, the practice still worried his government and it was something that was being dealt with.
Zimbabwe’s fast-track land reform programme, which triggered the row with Britain that London subsequently internationalised to bring in the wider European Union, the United States and their allies — resulted in some 300,000 black families taking over farms previously owned by 6,000 whites.

However, some of the beneficiaries are leasing land to white former owners.