Mail & Guardian
Mail & Guardian

Zimbabwe president suggests he was target of rally blast

“Let us continue to be united and address our differences peacefully. The strongest response to violence is peace. The strongest response to hate is love
“Let us continue to be united and address our differences peacefully. The strongest response to violence is peace. The strongest response to hate is love

Zimbabwe’s President Emmerson Mnangagwa, who survived a blast at a ruling Zanu-PF party rally Saturday, suggested he was the target of the attack which left one of his vice-presidents wounded.

“I am used to these attempts,” Mnangagwa said in his first comments on the explosion in the country’s second city of Bulawayo.

He said an object “exploded a few inches away from me — but it is not my time”.

One of Zimbabwe’s two vice presidents was injured during an explosion at a ruling Zanu-PF election rally which President Emmerson Mnangagwa survived in the second city of Bulawayo, state television said Saturday.

“In news just received Vice President Kembo Mohadi, Oppah Muchinguri-Kashiri the Zanu PF chairperson and political commissar Engelbert Rugeje were injured in the explosion,” Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) said.

© Agence France-Presse