FORMER Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe described his departure from office in November as a “coup d’etat” that “we must undo” in his first TV interviews since then, aired yesterday.

Mugabe, 94, spoke slowly but clearly to South Africa’s SABC broadcaster from an office in Harare, dressed in a grey suit, sitting in front of a portrait of himself and his wife Grace.

“I say it was a coup d’etat – some people have refused to call it a coup d’etat,” said Mugabe referring to the brief army takeover which led to Emmerson Mnangagwa assuming power after Mugabe’s resignation.

“We must undo this disgrace which we have imposed on ourselves, we don’t deserve it… Zimbabwe doesn’t deserve it.”

In another similarly vehement interview, with Britain’s ITV News, the elderly former leader said he had no desire to return to power.

“I don’t want to be president, no of course,” he said. “I’m now 94.”

Mugabe told both interviewers he did not hate his successor President Mnangagwa, 75, but alleged that he had “betrayed the whole nation”.

The ousted leader insisted he would not work with Mnangagwa and suggested that his presidency was “illegal” and “unconstitutional”.

“People must be chosen in government in a proper way. I’m willing to discuss, willing to assist in that process – but I must be invited.”

Gideon Chitanga, an analyst at the Johannesburg-based Political Economy Southern Africa think-tank, said that Mugabe’s intervention is significant “coming at a time of elections”.

Presidential polls are due by the end of August in which Mnangagwa will face his first major electoral test. – AFP, March 16, 2018.