President Mugabe rules out retirement ahead of 93rd birthday

Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe who will be 93 tomorrow, February 21, 2017, has ruled out retirement saying he has no 'acceptable' successor in place. In excerpts culled out from a radio broadcast that will later air this week, the world's oldest national leader, who has been in power since Zimbabwe's independence in 1980, said:

'The call to step down must come from my party, my party at the congress, my party at central committee. But then what do you see? It's the opposite. They want me to stand for elections.'

'The majority of the people feel that there is no replacement, a successor who to them is acceptable, as acceptable as I am,' he added.

However, his wife Grace Mugabe who is seen as a possible successor if the president finally decides to retire had earlier stated that the citizens will still vote her husband's corpse even when he is dead.