ZAPU leader, Dumiso Dabengwa, yesterday said the country faces a “worse dictatorship” should First Lady, Grace Mugabe take over from her soon-to-be-94-year-old husband President Robert Mugabe.
By NQOBANI NDLOVU
Dabengwa yesterday said Zimbabweans were so desperate for change and were against a Mugabe dynasty to an extent they would even support a coup, as long as it was bloodless, but ruled out axed Vice-President Emmerson Mnangagwa from the race saying he would likely perpetuate Zanu PF’s bad governance.
He said Zanu PF’s G40 faction, which has the backing of the First Lady, should be stopped in its tracks from accomplishing its State capture motives.
Mnangagwa was expelled from government on Monday on accusations of disloyalty, deceitfulness, disrespect and unreliability, among other charges, months after he had come under sustained attacks from Grace.
“If there are people who think it’s the only way, I don’t know them, I can’t stop them, but if they are there let them be level-headed enough to ensure that there is no violence, there is no bloodshed. I cannot stop them and that if they did it, they will get 99% support from the people because of the way people feel,” Dabengwa said after unveiling the Dr Dumiso Dabengwa Foundation at a private Bulawayo lodge.
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The foundation is a non-profit organisation that seeks to carry out a number of development and humanitarian projects which will help mitigate shortcomings in areas of human capital development, promotion of democracy and constitutionalism, leadership and governance and humanitarian aid particularly the welfare of ex-combatants.
The organisation will also push for redress and restorative justice for Gukurahundi and political violence victims since 1980. “The manner in which people have become desperate, anything that can change the way things are going in this country, they will now support,” he responded to a question on his thoughts on whether there can be a possibility of a coup in Zimbabwe.
The Zanu PF youth league on Monday threw their weight behind First Lady Grace in her bid to succeed Mnangagwa, as provincial structures called for a female VP.
“I smell worse dictatorship facing our people if those elements are allowed to continue and do what they think they have to do. These are people who have no sympathy about the fate of Zimbabweans, feelings about the suffering of the people of this country,” he said.
“I don’t believe that if any of those people are allowed to continue our situation will be any better, on the contrary it will be worse than it is today.
“With the crisis that we face today, all I can say is that it reinforces statements that I made when (former Vice-President) Joice Mujuru was fired that it was the beginning of the end. Whoever, emerges victorious, whether it is the First Lady or anyone else there is not going to be any immediate change….”