'Mnangagwa being sabotaged from inside Zanu-PF'

Expelled former Zanu-PF youth leader Godfrey Tsenengamu told the Daily News that Mnangagwa was being sabotaged from inside Zanu-PF - which demanded that he re-strategised his political trajectory.

"He is being sabotaged by his own comrades who are bitter for various reasons and also from remnants of the old dispensation.

"But his biggest challenge has been that of surrounding himself with people who have no appreciation of his vision.

"He picked people from nowhere and entrusted them with key positions, and these people are letting him down," Tsenengamu told the Daily News.

"The other challenge is that he surrounded himself with people who can't tell him the truth, and this is working against him.

"The majority of the people who rushed to surround him are nothing but mere opportunists and extortionists who are busy lining their pockets and doing everything possible to tarnish his name," Tsenengamu also let rip.

"It is important that the president lays the foundation for a better society in which he will be able to live even after his time as president.

"In whatever he is doing today, he must think about tomorrow," he told the Daily News further.

Since his expulsion from Zanu-PF over allegations of corruption that he made against some of the ruling party's bigwigs, Tsenengamu has become an arch critic of Mnangagwa and his government.

He was among several opposition and pro-democracy activists who were mobilising for the July 31 anti-government protests, which they said were necessary to expose rampant public sector corruption.

Yesterday, Tsenengamu also reminded Mnangagwa how he had been cut loose by Mugabe and ended up fleeing the country fearing for his life.

"The laws and systems he (Mnangagwa) is putting in place must not only be good for him when he is in power.

"I think he must quickly appreciate this just as he experienced the same in 2017 when the whole Mugabe system went against him and he had to run away from Zimbabwe and seek refuge in a foreign land.

"Mugabe died a bitter man because the system he used for 37 years to harass others turned against him and he had to vote against it.

"The same way he (Mnangagwa) wants to be treated tomorrow when he leaves office is how he must treat others today," Tsenengamu also told the Daily News.

After his dramatic fall from power in November 2017, on the back of a popular military coup, Mugabe and his erratic wife Grace did not hide their bitterness with Mnangagwa and Zanu-PF.

On the eve of the 2018 national elections, the late strongman threw the cat among the pigeons when he publicly endorsed MDC Alliance leader Nelson Chamisa to lead Zimbabwe - before telling the nation that he would never vote for Mnangagwa and Zanu-PF.

Mugabe resigned from office in November 2017, a few hours after Parliament had initiated proceedings to impeach him - after he had refused to leave office during eight tense days that began with the military intervening in the governance of the country.

The operation also saw him and Grace being placed under house arrest, while several Cabinet ministers linked to Zanu-PF's Generation 40 faction - which had coalesced around the Mugabes - were also targeted.

The annihilated G40 was, before the military intervention, locked in a bitter war with Mnangagwa and his supporters for control of both Zanu-PF and the country.