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Mnangagwa suspects Grace Mugabe faction behind blast: BBC
HARARE, June 27, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa
suspects “aggrieved” supporters of Grace Mugabe were behind a blast that
killed two people at a rally last weekend, according to a BBC interview on
Wednesday.
Mnangagwa narrowly escaped the explosion, which occurred as he left the
podium after addressing a crowd in Bulawayo, the country’s second largest
city.
The blast killed two people and injured at least 49 others, including one
of Mnangagwa’s deputies.
No one has claimed responsibility and no suspects have been arrested.
“I think this is a political action by some aggrieved persons by the
current democratic dispensation of the country,” Mnangagwa said in the BBC
interview.
“Without evidence, the people who are aggrieved about the new
dispensation are the G40,” Mnangagwa told the BBC, referring to a pro-Mugabe
faction known as Generation 40.
“That is the logical and reasonable conclusion one may make… but until
evidence is put forward and until you pin down this to why has this happened
when you get the person, he then tells us his history, the purpose of what
happened and why did the person do what he did.”
Mnangagwa replaced Robert Mugabe, who had ruled Zimbabwe since
independence from British colonial rule in 1980, after a bloodless military
takeover last November.
Mugabe has bemoaned his removal from power as a military coup.
A few days before the army’s intervention, Mnangagwa was removed as vice
president — a move that paved the way for the ambitious First Lady who was
seen, with Mnangagwa, as Mugabe’s possible successor.
Grace Mugabe had the backing of a clique of younger party leaders, known
as G40, while Mnangagwa, a favourite of the military, was supported by a
rival faction named Lacoste.
Asked whether he trusted Grace Mugabe, Mnangagwa said: “On what basis
would I trust somebody who was used by a cabal to say things which had no
basis at all?
“I feel sympathy for her because she was in my view politically
immature, but was easily used as a tool by those who wanted to get me.”
Mnangagwa faces main opposition leader Nelson Chamisa and 21 other minor
candidates in presidential elections on July 30 — the first since Mugabe was
toppled.
BSS/AFP/RY/1755 hrs