Gen. Constantine Chiwenga, a card-carrying member of ZANU-PF and a chief beneficiary of Mugabe’s policies over the years, said that the plans, suggested by Britain and other powerful Western countries, were intended to topple President Robert Mugabe and replace him with a pliant leader.
The Western countries made the suggestion late last year at the height of a cholera outbreak which was widely blamed on mismanagement by the government.
But Chiwenga called the plan a disguised regime change which the army would fight off if implemented.
"There are no questions about it and it shall not change. We fought and defeated them (white rule) in 1980 and what do they still want? We will not be slaves in our own country. This is our motherland," he said.
Mugabe’s stay in power in Zimbabwe, critics and sympathizers agree, has largely been secured by the support Mugabe receives from senior army commaders led by Gen. Chiwenga.
At one point ahead of the March 29 elections, Gen. Chiwenga told the world that his army would not work with any other leader of Zimbabwe except Robert Mugabe.
In recent years, Gen. Chiwenga has allowed his soldiers to join ZANU-PF militia units in persecuting MDC activits in the name of protecting Mugabe’s power base. – Harare Tribune
Post published in: News