Robert Mugabe bones up on longevity

HE'S 87, but he says his doctors have told him he has the bones of a 40 year old, and he plans to live to 100. And if Robert Gabriel Mugabe has his way he'll be elected to another five years as Zimbabwe's President later this year, and then, doubtless, look to further elections after that.

That, at least, is how he sees things after more than 30 years in power. "My age says I am not yet old at 87," he said the other day. "My body is saying the counting does not end at 87 - at least you must get to 100."

He added: "The doctors say that I am OK, and some are surprised by my bone structure . . . they say they are the bones of someone who is 40."

Nothing was said about the severe prostate cancer he is believed to be suffering. And, when asked about a successor, he appeared taken aback. "Well, well, well," was his sole response.

But maybe not so well from Mugabe's point of view. For despite his octogenarian bravado serious moves are afoot to ensure that when he goes a line of succession is in place to ensure that his Zanu-PF party retains power, rather than see it fall into the lap of opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change.

Behind the scenes, a succession battle is being waged. Significantly, the powerful armed forces, on which Mugabe increasingly relies, are playing a key role in the intrigue. Army commander General Constantine Chiwenga is widely referred to as "Zim 2" to indicate he is emerging as a serious contender.

Talk is of Chiwenga, a slavish Mugabe loyalist under whose command the army was responsible for much of the violence during the rigged 2008 election, stepping down, returning to civilian life and being drafted as Zanu-PF's successor to the President.

He has solid backing from service chiefs worried that if no succession plan is in place the party that led the chimurenga war of liberation against white rule will lose power - and the massive perks that go with that for the ruling elite surrounding the President.

Mugabe's decades of misrule may have reduced a country rich in gold, diamonds and other resources to penury for most, but for the favoured few now so anxious about the old man's health life is grand as they survey vast properties that stretch as far as the eye can see, gifts to them after being seized from white farmers.

Apart from Chiwenga, there are others in the frame: Vice-President Joice Mujuru, a female guerilla fighter in the liberation war whose nom de guerre was Teurai Ropa (Spill Blood); long-serving Defence Minister Emmerson Mnangagwa; and Security Minister Sydney Sekeremayi.

However, all the would-be successors recognise, as they plot, that Mugabe is Zanu-PF's best hope of winning the presidency for another five years; hence the drive to hold an election this year rather than 2012, when agreed constitutional changes will make it much harder to rig the result.

A fix is already in place. Analysis of the voters' roll shows it has 2.5 million too many names and, appealing to Mugabe's centenarian ambitions, more than 41,000 people aged over 100, four times as many as in Britain, which has a far larger population and longer life expectancy.

"The phantom vote is more than enough to settle the outcome of any election," says analyst Richard Johnson.

That's the sort of corrupt scenario that doubtless appeals to Mugabe and the thugs around him. But the clock is ticking for them and for Zanu-PF.

At 87, he cannot seriously believe he can hang on much longer. Neighbouring states, led by South Africa, are strenuously trying to block an election before the new constitution is in place. Mugabe is equally adamant it must be held. The outlook for a blighted country whose people have suffered so much could hardly be more fraught as Mugabe and those surrounding him seek ways to perpetuate his gross misrule.