Africa Focus: Resilient Mugabe asserts authority in Zimbabwe at 91

At 91 years, veteran Zimbabwe President Robert declares he is still fully in charge as the country's president, pouring scorn on sceptics wary of his advancing age and the rising political stature of his wife.

While some are moving quickly to write-off the president, suggesting his wife, Grace, is now the one calling the shots in both government and the ruling party, the veteran leader has come in quickly to set the record straight.

In an interview with state broadcaster ZBC marking his 91st birthday, Mugabe quashed speculation that he was no longer in charge. The veteran statesman turned 91 on Feb. 21 to become the world's oldest leader.

"She (Grace) is not the power behind my throne, she has come into politics in her own right," Mugabe said of his wife who entered into politics during the last quarter of 2014 during which she played a central role in exposing a plot by former Vice President Joice Mujuru and her allies to topple her husband from power.

Because of her boldness, the party's Women's League nominated her to be their leader and she went on to be appointed to the post by her husband at the party's elective congress in December.

While many have interpreted her meteoric rise as the harbinger of a much higher office in the country, her husband insists the First Lady is not running the show and that she is in her current party position to advance the interests of women.

In the interview, ahead of a bash in the resort town of Victoria Falls on Saturday to celebrate his birthday, the president denies his wife has become influential and maintains he is still fully in charge of both government and the party he has led since 1980.

"She has not come yet into the real part of things," Mugabe said.

As Mugabe asserts his authority, he continues to grip many in awe on how he has managed to remain in power for this long.

At independence from Britain in 1980, many black Zimbabweans would sing "Long live Comrade Mugabe" in praise of their icon who had led an armed struggle to liberate them from colonialism.

Mugabe, who was then a 56-year-old Prime Minister, had joined other leaders of the Frontline States of Southern Africa -- a grouping of formerly five independent states which fought for total independence in the region.

Mugabe has since outlived most of his contemporaries both in terms of age and length in office.

In Africa, only dos Santos and Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo of Equatorial Guinea have served longer than him, albeit by some months.

"There are no indications that the President would retire and I don't foresee that happening. I think Zimbabwe is likely to have him as President until nature takes its course but it's important for both domestic and international players to focus on life after Mugabe," said political analyst Pedzisai Ruhanya.

In February 2014, he said he would retire when the time came, but only when his party was strong.

"When the day comes and I retire, yes, sure the day will come, but I do not want to leave my party in tatters. I want to leave it intact."

Then in December 2014, he dispelled all notions of an "early" retirement when he told veterans of the country's liberation war that he would not retire any time soon.

"I am never going to retire," he was quoted as saying. "I will go when death takes me."

Mugabe has continued to suppress debate surrounding his retirement and in December fired his deputy, Mujuru, and several cabinet ministers and their deputies on allegations of attempting to topple him from power through unconstitutional means -- including an assassination plot.

So far, the allegations against Mujuru and her allies have not been proven, but there are fears that the purges will go ahead and include other government officials and heads of state entities.

Media researcher and human rights activist Rashweat Mukundu said factionalism remained in the party, more driven by the fact that Mugabe was now 91 years old "and in the twilight of his political career".

"If Mugabe suppresses a healthy contest for power, then his party won't survive his departure," he said.

Ruhanya said, given Mugabe's advanced age, focus should now be on restructuring the governance and economic sectors of the state and limit fixation with him.

Mugabe acknowledged in the ZBC interview that factionalism was still rife in his party even after firing Mujuru.

He said while Mujuru led a faction, Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa also led another faction but the mistake made by the Mujuru faction was that it became power hungry to the extent of plotting to unconstitutionally remove him from power.

"We have not addressed factionalism as it had existed," he said, adding the party was yet to finish addressing the scourge.

He said over-ambition destroyed Mujuru who "did not want to buy her time to see the President either retire or die".

He added that the former VP was foolish to think that because she had attained a PhD she was now fit to be President, saying such things did not count but capacity and experience.

While Mugabe is obviously in the twilight of his political career, that of his wife, Grace, is illuminating even brighter with prospects of her landing a cabinet position in his government very high.

After she was elevated to the position of secretary for women's affairs in the party's Politburo (the highest decision-making body outside congress), she became the de facto Minister of Women's Affairs, Gender and Community Development after the position was left vacant when Mugabe made new Cabinet appointments.

She is now seen as the most powerful woman in the country and is suspected to be harbouring ambitions of becoming Minister of Defense.

Many analysts, however, still believe that while she is now Mugabe's pillar of strength, she is only as powerful as he is alive, and once expressed fears that some people wanted to deal with her in the event of her husband's demise.

The First Lady now often walks hand in hand with her husband, ostensibly to strengthen his gait.

And as a birthday bash is thrown in his honour on Saturday to mark his birthday, many loyalists will continue to sing "Long live Comrade Mugabe".

They have since declared him the party's presidential candidate in the 2018 elections when he turns 94. Endi