Ray Nkosi | Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa has once again dumped his allies during the hour need.

This is soon after President Robert Mugabe has declared that he is not grooming a successor going further to state that among those in his leadership none has the leadership qualities to replace him.

Mugabe in his statements effectively snubbed his deputy Mnangagwa who has been angling himself to succeed him as a touted heir apparent.

In a new twist Mnangagwa said those pressing for him to be President while President Mugabe is still in office must be expelled from Zanu-PF. This is a deja-vu moment after Mnangagwa publicly dumped expelled war vets led by Christopher Mustvangwa in their moment of need when they were under siege within the ruling Zanu PF party.

Mnangagwa is reported describing such people “mad” and said some of them had since been expelled from the ruling party.

This is outside the fact that one of Mnangagwa’s most vocal loyalists  Godfrey Tsenengamu who was arrested after he held a press conference, denouncing First Lady Grace Mugabe has been denied bail.

The former Zanu PF provincial youth chairperson, was slapped behind bars for the charges of holding a presser without notifying the police.

“There are these mad young people who move around saying they want Cde Mnangagwa to be President and I told them you are mad. We don’t want to hear that. We have our father (President Mugabe) who has led us for over 60 years. We have travelled with him that far and you hear young people, some of them born after independence, saying such bad things,” said Mnangagwa the state media reports.

“We don’t want that. Yes, even in a family set-up you can have a bad apple among your children. We must all know that if you want to succeed in our country, you must be a member of the ruling party; the party that has a liberation struggle history; a party with leaders we can bank on because they sacrificed a lot for this country,” he said.

“Today we have President Mugabe as our leader. White people might fume and say all sorts of things but President Mugabe will soldier on with his people.

President Mugabe always tells them that he does what the people want, reminding them to mind their own business,” he said.

Mnangagwa said the success of Command Agriculture was because of the fast track land reform programme ushered in by President Mugabe.

“President Mugabe said the principal cause of the liberation war was the land question. He has fought hard to ensure that the landless majority reclaim their land. President Mugabe did not stop there for he proceeded with indigenisation that economically empowered our people. So Command Agriculture is empowering the people,” the VP said.

“Zanu-PF will rule forever and those ruled will forever be ruled and I don’t understand why you opt to move away from the rulers and stay with those being ruled. That’s pure madness. Zanu-PF is the party that brought independence under the leadership of President Mugabe.”
VP Mnangagwa said President Mugabe would be re-elected in 2018 to lead the country.