'Mnangagwa, Kasukuwere fallout media creation'

Zanu-PF national political commissar Saviour Kasukuwere has denied that there is bad blood between him and Vice-President Emmerson Mnangagwa, adding that their alleged fallout is a creation of the media.

Kasukuwere told journalists on the sidelines of a Zanu-PF Midlands provincial co-ordinating committee meeting in Gweru last Thursday that he always regarded Mnangagwa as his senior and Vice-President in both Zanu-PF and government.

"Do you see the Vice-President here at this meeting? It's your own creation as the media that there is fallout between myself and VP (Mnangagwa)," he said.

Kasukuwere blamed the media for what he called "misleading headlines" claiming he belonged to the Generation 40 faction which was opposed to Mnangagwa's bid to succeed President Robert Mugabe.

"It's your (media) own problems and you have to deal with your headlines. The VP is my senior and I respect him," he said.

Kasukuwere has been accused of suspending Mnangagwa allies and replacing them with those sympathetic to G40 in a bid to scuttle the VP's ambitions to take over from the ageing Zanu-PF leader.