HARARE – President Emmerson Mnangagwa has told exiled G40 politician Mandi Chimene to “come back home” after the former Zanu PF rivals met in Mozambique Thursday through the facilitation of the neighbouring country’s leader Filipe Nyusi.

Chimene took refuge in Mozambique November 2017 when the Zimbabwe military ousted then President Robert Mugabe and installed Mnangagwa in his place.

A former ally to the late founding leader, Chimene was among some Zanu PF politicians coalescing under the moniker Generation 40 (G40) who found themselves united by their resistance against Mnangagwa, then vice President, succeeding Mugabe.

The controversial politician met Mnangagwa in Mozambique’s Manica province for the first time in six years with Mnangagwa, considered a vengeful politician, telling his nemesis to return home.

“He said come back home and I said I am coming,” Chimene said with a gay chuckle while talking to state media.

The former Manicaland political heavyweight said caught up with Mnangagwa after Nyusi had suggested she makes time to meet the Zimbabwean leader upon his planned Thursday visit to the neighbouring country for the official commissioning of the newly rehabilitated Machipanda railway line.

Chimene played down her long absence from home saying she was in Mozambique to join her maternal uncles whom she was assisting with farming projects.

“I am here not because I am a refugee. No, I am not a refugee. I am actually a niece here. I am in my uncles’ home,” she said in Shona.

The controversial politician said she would prolong her stay in Mozambique to see through her uncles’ farming projects before she could consider returning home.

She denied ever taking sides in Zanu PF’s factional wars.

“I was never on any of the sides; both factions were uncertain about my affiliations,” Chimene said, adding that both factions tried to lure her to their camps but she rubbished their advances.

Narrating her escape to Mozambique, the former Manicaland minister of state said she got wind of the coup while at the airport in China November 2017 when “alarmists” told her soldiers had besieged Zimbabwe’s main airport and her home in Mutare.

Chimene said she was forced to change destination for Mozambique fearing for her life.