Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe has fired his deputy Joice Mujuru, days after she lost her post in the ruling party, offficials said.
Mugabe sacked Mujuru on Tuesday and was expected to name a new cabinet, officials cited by the Reuters news agency said.
Eight other ministers are reported to have been given the sack along woth Mujuru according to the Jonathan Moyo controlled State Media.
They includeWebster Shamu (Minister of ICT, Postal and Courier
Services), Simbarashe Mudarikwa (Minister of State for
Mashonaland East Province), Francis Nhema (Minister
of Youth Development, Indigenisation and Empowerment), Olivia Muchena (Minister of Higher and Tertiary Education, Science and Technology
Development), Nicholas Goche (Minister of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare), Didymus Mutasa
(Minister of Presidential Affairs), Dzikamai Mavhaire (Minister of Energy and Power Development) and
Munacho Mutezo (Deputy Minister of Energy and Power
Development).
The sources, who declined to be named because they are not authorised to speak to the news media, said Mujuru had received her dismissal letter on Monday night after weeks of accusations that she had led a “treacherous cabal” to try to unseat Mugabe.
Al Jazeera Haru Mutasa, reporting from the capital Harare, said Mugabe “says he has evidence that Mujuru met with US officials, and in this meeting they plotted a plan to try and remove” him from office.
“Supporters of ZANU-PF are concerned that there could be a split [in the party]. They know that Mujuru has been a member of the party for many years – even before independence from British rule in 1980,” said our correspondent.
“She does have a following – a lot of women supporters thought that she would perhaps be the first woman president of Zimbabwe one day, should Mugabe step down.”
‘Smear campaign’
Mujuru on Tuesday blamed “a well-orchestrated smear campaign and gross abuse of state apparatus” that led to the loss of her ruling party post and shook Zimbabwean politics, the AFP news agency reported.
Mujuru, who once looked likely to succeed long-ruling Mugabe, has been accused of plotting to assassinate the 90-year-old and removed from the ruling ZANU-PF party’s central committee.
She said she was being victimised after exposing infiltrators conspiring to destroy the party, which has ruled the country since independence in 1980.
“I have become the fly in the web of lies whose final objective is the destruction of ZANU-PF and what it stands for and ultimately the present government,” Mujuru said in a statement.
“A vociferous attempt has been made to portray me as ‘a traitor’, ‘murderer’ and ‘sellout’, yet no iota of evidence has been produced to give credence to the allegations.”
ZANU-PF held an elective congress last week which endorsed Mugabe as president and his wife Grace as head of the women’s wing.
Source: ZimEye, Al Jazeera and agencies
4 Replies to “BREAKING NEWS: Mugabe Fires Mujuru, Eight Ministers”
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Read the Zim constitutopn. It provides for any eventuality.
That means no annual leave or trips abroad for check- ups for the old man in the near future. He has to induct and groom the new Vice President because it looks like whoever is coming does not have experience of running a country. Inonzi krisisi pa Zim
One is justified to believe that Teurai was never a politician. She just met guerrillas who of course enjoyed themselves as men on or with her and then took her with them to Zambia. Like thousands of young people they did not really understand what was going on. They just went because at some point it was fashionable. As it is, it looks like she cant lift any political thought from the ground to identify any action to take apart from just begging and begging. Margaret Dongo is a politician, Jorum Gumbo is also another one. Simba Makoni and Dumiso Dabengwa forsaw this and decided to leave long ago. Politics is not religion. I dont know what has happened to the semi literate Jabulani Sibanda who infact seems to be suffering from an serious identity crisis. The message to all Zimbabweans is that a tyrant will never be something else but a vicious dictator, a murderer who grabs everything to give to his own children and Robert Mugabe is just one perfect one. Therefore supporting him is surrendering oneself to be used like a chewing gum but more precisely like a condom. We have seen living examples!
More powerful people like Edgar Tekere tried it and fell by the wayside …this is ZANU PF you are talking about you reporters ..you don’t know it that well … Mujuru is history !!