VICE President Kembo Mohadi has dismissed claims by some opposition parties that the Zanu-PF Government is under the control of the military and will use the army to resist handing over power in the event that the party loses the forthcoming harmonised elections.

In an interview with The Chronicle yesterday, VP Mohadi said Zanu-PF draws its mandate from the people through the ballot box and would accept any outcome of the polls.

“Zanu-PF is not run by the military and we are not in the barracks. Of course, President Emmerson Mnangagwa is a trained soldier, I am a trained soldier and VP (Constantino) Chiwenga is also a trained soldier because that was our generation. We all went to war because it was a requirement then to go and fight but you can’t then say we are a military Government because we have all since retired from the military,” he said.

“Zanu-PF is not the one that has the power but the power lies with the people of Zimbabwe and if the people vote us out they would have rejected us. If you lose an election you would have lost and if you win you would have won. It’s simple as that”.

VP Mohadi said Operation Restore Legacy, which culminated in the new dispensation, had the blessings of Zimbabweans who took to the streets calling for the former President Robert Mugabe to relinquish power.

“Zimbabwe has never experienced any coup. You call us a junta government and I don’t know what you mean because if you are talking of Operation Restore Legacy, it was not the army that took over, there was an uprising by the people and everyone was saying Mugabe must go, Parliament equally said Mugabe must go and those are the people that removed him from power,” he said.

The VP said the army did not force Mr Mugabe to resign.

“It was not the army. If it were the army they would have arrested him (Mr Mugabe). He is at his house with his family and everything is going on well.

“He was never molested and I don’t know where you are getting these ideas that we are a junta government,” he said.

Mr Mugabe convened a Press conference in March to a selected group of local and foreign media organisations and claimed that he was “unconstitutionally” deposed through a coup despite resigning ahead of imminent impeachment on November 21 last year. zimpapers