In an interview with The Standard’s Blessed Mhlanga (BM) on Friday, Transport Minister Joram Gumbo (JG) said that Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa does not harbour any ambitions to take over from President Robert Mugabe.
Below is an excerpt of the interview:
BM: You know Mnangagwa?
JG: Yes,very well.
BM: Does he harbour any ambitions?
JG: He doesn’t. He has always been accused from the time he was security chief, from war time, from when he was the president’s personal assistant.
People always called him the blue-eyed boy for vaMugabe. That’s what they have always been calling him.
Now it’s a step higher from what he was being called before he became vice-president. Now that he has become VP, some people are saying he wants to take over.
BM: If indeed he has no ambition to dethrone Mugabe, what is the motive of these people?
JG: I don’t know. It can best be answered by them, but what I know is that Mnangagwa’s loyalty to President Mugabe is unquestionable.
Very much unquestionable and that’s what we all believe in the Midlands.
He is one person that I know for a fact that he does not harbour any intentions of taking over from vaMugabe.
Unless appointed to do so by vaMugabe and unless the president says I am stepping down, then maybe he may want to stand, if he wants to stand.
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