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Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe celebrates his 93rd birthday on Tuesday amid growing concerns over his failing health.
Mugabe who has ruled out retiring soon, said officials of the ruling party, ZANU-PF believe there is no “acceptable” alternative.
“The call to step down must come from my party … In such circumstances, I will step down,” the state-owned Sunday Mail newspaper quoted Mugabe as saying in an interview aired yesterday.
“They want me to stand for elections … If I feel that I can’t do it any more, I will say so to my party so that they relieve me. But for now, I think I can’t say so,” he said. “The majority of the people feel that there is no replacement, a successor who to them is acceptable.
Speaks on corruption
Mugabe said rumour-mongers were merely targeting “big fish” in his administration.
The world’s oldest leader said he would act if shown evidence even though graft scandals involving ministers and even members of his own family regularly feature in local newspapers.
“I think the big fish; more of it has been talk, talk and talk.
“People have not come out and actually said here is a case against a big fish “or are people afraid to come out and even come to us and say ‘this one is stealing so much, investigate the person.
“If there is evidence, we will pursue that evidence and certainly we will deal with those persons,” Mugabe said.
In spite the slew of scandals involving state tenders and contracts reported in Zimbabwe’s free-wheeling private media, investigations are rare and arrests even rarer.
The anti-corruption commission is currently fighting the higher education minister and his deputy, who are accused of embezzling hundreds of thousands of dollars from a state fund.
However, they denied the charges.
Parliament has also penned several reports recommending investigations into irregular tender allocations, including at several state-owned firms.
The reports have been ignored.
Transparency International said in October Zimbabwe ranked poorly on corruption and was losing at least one billion dollars annually to graft, with police and local government officials among the worst offenders.