Mugabe skirts retirement talk at burial of friend

HARARE — Zimbabwe’s veteran President Robert Mugabe on Saturday avoided the controversial subject of his future, as he buried a senior political colleague and friend, who had been pressing him to retire.

Mugabe (92) and one of Africa’s longest serving leaders, is eligible to seek re-election at the end of his current five-year term in 2018, but has increasingly looked frail, stoking a scramble in his ruling Zanu PF party to succeed him.

In an hour-long speech on Saturday at the State funeral of Cephas Msipa, a former Cabinet minister and Zanu PF member, Mugabe, in power since independence from Britain in 1980, largely dwelt on his comrade’s role in the 1960s-70s liberation struggle.

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