By Own Correspondent- In his special independence day interview with the national broadcaster, President Mnangagwa spoke about the period when he was Vice President and was under public attack from the then first lady Grace Mugabe.

Mnangagwa said that he actually enjoyed the “lies” said as part of those public attacks as he knew them to be false.

He also said that he holds no ill-feelings for the former first family.

Said Mnangagwa:

“We are seized with the challenges of the country and we are moving forward. What is behind us is behind us. To some extent I enjoyed the lies, here was the person attacking you on issues that are false and you cannot get angry when you know that if you can be given a chance to speak, you can destroy every single allegation that is being made, so you can’t get angry because the premises of attack were all false and crafted by individuals who wanted to cause me to be removed.

Perhaps I was standing in the way of some ambitious colleagues in the system. So I actually enjoyed the lies. This is why they probably didn’t give me the opportunity to respond in public because they knew they were lying.”

In 2017, following the public attacks, Mnangagwa was eventually fired from his position as Vice President by the President Robert Mugabe in November 2017. Mnangagwa immediately fled the country reportedly fearing for his life. A military coup that removed Mugabe followed and Mnangagwa returned weeks later to become president of Zimbabwe.-StateMedia