Zimbabwe’s War veterans have revealed that they had planned to stage a coup to overthrow Robert Mugabe weeks before the army intervened with its special military operation.
NewsDay has reported that members of the veteran associations of both independence war armies, the Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army and the Zimbabwe People’s Revolutionary Army, said they had planned to march on State House in November to force Mugabe to step down.
The war veterans said the army was quicker to stop their intended plan which was to be executed on November 15 to force Mugabe out.
One of the veterans, Christopher Mutsvangwa said “Mnangagwa was never aware of what we were doing. He remained loyal to Mugabe to the extent that we had problems with his blind loyalty that never got a return favour from Mugabe,”
President Emmerson Mnangagwa was still the choice of the veterans to replace Mugabe had their moves to overthrow Mugabe taken place.
Mutsvangwa said Mnangagwa’s eyes were “opened” when Grace Mugabe – who was championing a rival faction of Zanu-PF – was booed at a rally on November 4.
“The booing in Bulawayo was a watershed moment we organised and celebrated. It exposed Mugabe for who he was and opened Mnangagwa’s eyes to what was going on” the veteran said.
Mr. Mugabe resigned after the military takeover last month and his former ally, Emmerson Mnangagwa has since been sworn in as President.
Source: Africafeeds.com
