Mugabe: It was a military coup d’etat

ZIMBABWE: Robert Mugabe has denounced his former right-hand man’s ascent to president of Zimbabwe as illegal.

In his first interview since being ousted in a soft coup last year, he said: ‘‘It was truly a military takeover. We must undo this disgrace.’’

His removal from power in November saw Emmerson Mnangagwa installed in the first transfer of command in almost

40 years. Mugabe told reporters in his

$7.5 million

25-bedroom mansion in the plush Borrowdale suburb of Zimbabwe’s capital, Harare, that Mnangagwa was in power illegitimately following a

‘‘coup d’etat’’.

Mnangagwa, known as The Crocodile during Zimbabwe’s early years of independence, took the reins last year after a power struggle with Mugabe’s second wife, Grace.

He had been expelled from the country as Grace Mugabe postured for the presidency, but was spirited back into the country with the help of the military, which had by then put the Mugabes under house arrest.

Mugabe said his dismissal was a coup.

‘‘People must be chosen in government in a proper way. I’m willing to assist in that process, but I must be invited,’’ he said.

‘‘I don’t hate Emmerson. I brought him into government. But he must be proper. He is illegal.’’

Mugabe said he was ready to engage with Mnangagwa ‘‘to correct

"People must be chosen in government in a proper way. I don't hate Emmerson. I brought him into government. But he must be proper. He is illegal."

Robert Mugabe

things’’. He said he did not watch the street celebrations that marked the end of his reign.

Speaking of Mnangagwa’s rise, he said: ‘‘[By] not wanting to be democratic [Mnangagwa] has betrayed the whole nation.’’

Mugabe served a decade in detention along with Mnangagwa when the white minority ruled the former Rhodesia.

He came to power in 1980 after a ceasefire negotiated under Margaret Thatcher.

But within three years, violence began to erupt in the south of the country as several government officials and white farmers were killed, their land seized and put under new ownership.

Asked about his human rights record, Mugabe said: ‘‘Some errors were done. They weren’t that bad in comparison to other countries.’’

His 38 years in power turned Rhodesia from an affluent state into one of the poorest countries in the world.

It abandoned its own currency in 2008 after years of hyper inflation. But Mugabe denied ruining Zimbabwe.

‘‘There is greater prosperity,’’ he said. ‘‘People have their land.’’

So far Mnangagwa has said Mugabe could live well in retirement and would be shown respect. But the attitude has hardened. ‘‘He (Mugabe) has jumped into the fray, so I suspect he is fair game now,’’ a source close to Mnangagwa said.

– Telegraph Group