Mugabe Says He will Never pick a successor, wants to live to 100

 

 Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe says his successor must be chosen democratically and that his wife will not automatically inherit the role, a warning to feuding members of his ZANU-PF party that he is still in charge after 36 years in power.

The comments from Africa's oldest leader, now aged 92, are his clearest indication that he wants to be president for life.

In a two-hour interview with state broadcaster ZBC TV late on Thursday he said: "Why successor? I am still there. Why do you want a successor? I did not say I was a candidate to retire." Leaders were elected not appointed, he said.

"In a democratic party, you don't want leaders appointed that way to lead the party. They have to be appointed properly by the people, at a gathering of the people, at a congress."

Mugabe said he was not behind his wife Grace's quick rise within ZANU-PF, which has led to reports that she has plans to succeed her husband.

"Others say the president wants to leave the throne for his wife. Where have you ever seen that, even in our own culture, where a wife inherits from her husband?" Mugabe said.

The former liberation fighter was chosen in 2014 to lead his party for another five years, automatically becoming the ZANU-PF presidential candidate for Zimbabwe's 2018 presidential vote.

He will be 99 if he wins and completes that term, his last under a new constitution. He also told ZBC TV he wanted to live to 100, that he was fit and still did daily morning exercises.

"I am happy because I am about to reach the age I want. You know the age I want to reach - 100 years. So only eight years remain," Mugabe said.