Mphoko speaks on Mugabe successor - ' if you wander off, led by your ambition, you'll set off landmines'

VICE President Phelekezela Mphoko yesterday said it is not a given that an individual from the Karanga tribe will succeed President Robert Mugabe, saying people should not lose sleep over statements by some excitable people in Zanu-PF.

Mphoko said some people were already insinuating that President Mugabe was a Zezuru and it followed that a Karanga should succeed him.

Introducing First Lady Grace Mugabe at a rally where she was assessing the impact of the drought caused by the El Nino phenomenon at Kanyemba Secondary School in Chiweshe, Mashonaland Central yesterday, Mphoko said people should not fool themselves thinking that the Presidency was up for grabs.

"There's nowhere in our Constitution where it's written that this country was liberated by a Karanga, a Ndau, a Zezuru or a Ndebele," he said.

"What we hear now that President Mugabe is a Zezuru and if he steps down a Karanga should take over isn't what we fought for. That's a Rhodesian mindset. Don't lose sleep over statements by some excitable people because there's nothing like that.

"We've party ideology and if you wander off, led by your ambition, you'll set off landmines. Don't say you weren't warned. So, let's not fool ourselves thinking that the position of President is up for grabs by everyone.

"Number two, being greedy and too ambitious makes you a bad subordinate. That's the first sin. You can't separate those two. "Satan had a beautiful voice in the Bible, but he wasn't content with his position. He could hit all the musical notes but he wasn't satisfied, he wanted to be God. He tripped."

VP Mphoko said he was happy with his post as Vice President. He said by virtue of that position, out of 14 million people in Zimbabwe, after President Mugabe, he was number two together with his colleague Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa.

"So if I'm not satisfied, where do I want to be? That's insubordination." Speaking at the same occasion, Zanu-PF national commissar Saviour Kasukuwere said the party would kick out all provincial chairpersons who defied party directives.

He made reference to Mashonaland East, Masvingo and Midlands provinces. "If you're a Zanu-PF member, do Zanu-PF things not to try and intimidate us," he said. "We call for a rally in the presence of all provincial chairpersons that the President is coming.

"Some of you go to the President and say we weren't informed - it's Kasukuwere's project. Down with you! Leave those positions, we're already tired of you," he thundered. He also warned youth leaders who were "half in, half out" that they risked being kicked out of the party.