(Last Updated on February 1, 2016 by Editor)
Mugabe said this soon after his arrival from Ethiopia where he attended the African Union’s 26th ordinary summit.
Mugabe told Zanu-PF supporters no-one should undermine the party’s leadership elected at a congress held in 2014.
Zanu-PF has been infested by factional battles, as several individuals and groups position themselves to take over from Mugabe, turning 92 on February 21, should anything happen to him while he is still in office.
Reports indicate that a faction known as Generation 40 (G40), believed to be led by Higher Education Minister Jonathan Moyo, is pushing for Grace Mugabe to succeed her husband. The group, reports say, wants to block Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa who has long been tipped as the heir apparent to Mugabe.
Mugabe’s remarks came just days after presidential spokesperson George Charamba warned that the nonagenarian would be wielding the axe to those engaging in succession battles.
“The president is not a character who rushes. He will allow you a very long rope. You go about enjoying meaningless headlines and thinking you are on top of the world, it will take just one afternoon.
“So watch it, there are many sinister minds that speak in the name of the president, who are in fact ‘secessionists’ and it won’t be long before the headlines give you the story,” Charamba was quoted saying at the time.
In 2014, president Mugabe ousted his ten years deputy president Joice Mujuru after his [Mugabe] wife Grace charged that she was plotting to kill him, a charge Mujuru continues to deny.