HARARE: The wife of 92-year-old Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe said Friday that he would be the voters’ choice even after he dies, as she addressed supporters from the ruling ZANU-PF party.
Grace Mugabe, who is seen as a successor to her ailing husband, ratcheted up her colorful rhetoric ahead of the election due next year.
“One day when God decides that Mugabe dies, we will have his corpse appear as a candidate on the ballot paper,” Grace Mugabe told a party rally in Buhera, southeast of Harare.
“You will see people voting for Mugabe as a corpse. I am seriously telling you — just to show people how people love their president.”
President Mugabe has vowed to stand again in the election, but Grace could run if he dies before the vote.
Grace Mugabe, who was appointed leader of ZANU-PF’s women’s wing in a surprise move two years ago, is well known for her fiery speeches and verbal attacks on opponents.
In 2015, she led a campaign which led to the ousting of Deputy President Joice Mujuru.
President Mugabe, the world’s oldest national leader, turns 93 on Tuesday, with a celebration party planned for next Saturday.
Grace has previously pledged to push Mugabe in his wheelchair to election rallies if needed.
Mugabe, who has been in power since Zimbabwe’s independence in 1980, has avoided naming a successor and his party is divided between factions jostling to succeed him.
Grace bemoaned the infighting, telling those seeking to succeed her husband: “Let’s not fool each other, let’s wait for God’s time.”
Zimbabwe would even vote for Mugabe’s corpse: Wife
Zimbabwe would even vote for Mugabe’s corpse: Wife
Russian drone attack forces power cuts in Ukraine’s Kryvyi Rih, military says
- Kyiv says the campaign has forced rolling outages and emergency cuts to cities across the country, as repair crews work under fire and Ukraine relies on air defenses and electricity imports to stabilize the grid
KYIV: Russian drones struck infrastructure in the central Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih on Wednesday, forcing emergency power blackouts for more than 45,000 customers and disrupting heat supplies, military administration head Oleksandr Vilkul said.
“Please fill up on water and charge your devices, if you have the chance. It’s going to be difficult,” Vilkul said on the Telegram messaging app.
Water utility pumping stations switched to generators and water remained in the system, but there could be pressure problems.
The full scale of the attack was not immediately known. There was no comment from Russia about the strike.
Russia has repeatedly struck Ukraine’s power plants, substations and transmission lines with missiles and drones, seeking to knock out electricity and heating and hinder industry during the nearly four-year war.
Kyiv says the campaign has forced rolling outages and emergency cuts to cities across the country, as repair crews work under fire and Ukraine relies on air defenses and electricity imports to stabilize the grid.
Kryvyi Rih, a steel-and-mining hub in the Dnipropetrovsk region and President Volodymyr Zelensky’s hometown, has been hit repeatedly, with strikes killing civilians and damaging homes and industry.
The city sits close enough to southern front lines to be within strike range, while its factories, logistics links and workforce make it economically important and a key rear-area center supporting Ukraine’s war effort.
