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Robert Mugabe sacks deputy and seven ministers over ‘plot’ against him
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The Zimbabwean president, Robert Mugabe, has dismissed his deputy, Joice Mujuru, and seven government ministers, accusing them of a plot to unseat him.
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Misheck Sibanda, cabinet secretary, said in a statement on Tuesday that Mujuru had been dismissed because of conflicts of interest and conduct “inconsistent with the expected standard”.
The state security minister, Didymus Mutasa, a long-time Mugabe ally, was among the seven ministers fired.
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Mujuru, who was also dismissed as Mugabe’s deputy in the party last week, gave statements to two private daily newspapers dismissing the accusations against her, calling the allegations “ridiculous”.
or together with various distinguished comrades, have sought to remove His Excellency RG Mugabe from office are ridiculous.”
Mujuru, a 59-year-old former guerrilla leader known as Spill Blood during the liberation war, was not immediately available to comment on the report of her dismissal.
Mugabe, 90, and in power since independence from Britain in 1980, has not indicated a preferred political heir, but his old age and rumours of ill health have escalated succession fights in the ruling Zanu-PF party.
The first lady, Grace Mugabe, 49, has emerged as a potential successor. She has also launched withering attacks on Mujuru.
Mujuru’s fall could also clear the path for the justice minister, Emmerson Mnangagwa – a hardline Mugabe loyalist known as The Crocodile – to position himself to take over when Africa’s oldest head of state dies or retires.
The current political infighting comes against a backdrop of slowing economic growth and high unemployment.
