Robert Mugabe has forgiven Emmerson Mnangagwa, the man who threw him out of power last year, and says that the new president is the right man to rule Zimbabwe.

Mr Mugabe, 94, on Thursday said: "There was an election. Zanu-PF was represented by Emmerson Mnangagwa and [Nelson] Chamisa represented MDC-Alliance and results came out saying the person who won was Emmerson Mnangagwa.

"We have accepted the result and we hope that we will continue respecting the will of the people. The gun does not and should not lead politics."

He added that he was grateful Mr Mnangagwa, 75, had hired a luxury aircraft to take his wife Grace from Singapore to Harare for the funeral of her mother, Idah Marufu, who died last week.

His remarks were markedly different to those he made just six weeks ago, on the eve of the first election since he was ousted, when Mr Mugabe said he would vote for the opposition candidate and that he had not trusted Mr Mnangagwa since they began their political relationship more then 50 years ago.