I have no hard feelings towards Mugabe, says Mnangagwa

President Emmerson Mnangagwa says he has no ill feelings towards former President Robert Mugabe and has opened regular communication channels with his predecessor to ensure that his welfare is well taken care of.

The President also revealed that Mugabe (95) is currently receiving treatment in Singapore and Government will continue to look after him.

In a special Independence Day interview with the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) yesterday, President Mnangagwa said he did not bear grudges with the former first family.

"There are no hard feelings between me and the former President as well as the former First Family. The former President is the founding father of Zimbabwe," he said.

"He was our leader, the revolutionary leader during the armed struggle and led to the creation of Independence in Zimbabwe.

"With that regard, I think history should put his name in its proper place.

"We in the Second Republic, recognise that he was our former commander and that cannot be taken away from him."

President Mnangagwa said he regularly checks on Mugabe adding that the former President was currently receiving treatment in Singapore.

"We have established a communication method… We can talk on telephone between me and him on a regular basis.

"He has not been feeling well. At the age of 95, I think he is reasonably in good health. Currently he is not in the country. He left on the 2nd of April to Singapore, he will be way for about 29 days and he will come back.

"I am making sure that I do the facilitation for him to receive treatment, take him to Singapore and to bring him back, all the facilities, I make sure that it is done."

With regards to his humiliation by the First Lady prior to Operation Restore Legacy, President Mnangagwa said the events are behind him.

He said at that time he remained unfazed in the face of the public attacks because he knew that the allegations levelled against him were false.

"Meanwhile there is the new Republic, we are seized with the challenges of the country and we are moving forward. What is behind us is behind us.

"To some extent I enjoyed the lies, here was the person attacking you on issues that are false and you cannot get angry when you know that if you can be given a chance to speak, you can destroy every single allegation that is being made, so you can't get angry because the premises of attack were all false and crafted by individuals who wanted to cause me to be removed.

" Perhaps I was standing in the way of some ambitious colleagues in the system. So I actually enjoyed the lies. This is why they probably didn't give me the opportunity to respond in public because they knew they were lying."