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Vice
President Joice Mujuru
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Zimbabwe's
vice president, once seen as a possible successor to President Robert Mugabe,
has been linked to an alleged plot to assassinate the 90-year-old leader, a
state-run newspaper reported Sunday.
An
ally of Vice President Joice Mujuru who was recently ousted from his post as
ruling party spokesman said the allegations that he conspired against Mugabe
are false. Rugare Gumbo, the ousted spokesman, was identified in The Sunday
Mail as a plotter against Mugabe, who has been in power since independence in
1980.
The
Sunday Mail cited a voice recording and reported comments as evidence of the
alleged plot but it did not attribute the information to security officials or
other sources.
Political
factions are maneuvering for influence ahead of the annual ruling party
congress next month. Mujuru has come under repeated verbal attacks from the
president's wife, Grace.
Grace
Mugabe has assumed an increasingly political role, angering some party insiders
who believe she does not have leadership credentials in a country struggling
with high unemployment and other social problems.
Gumbo
said Robert Mugabe lambasted him during a meeting of senior leaders of the
ruling ZANU-PF party on Thursday night.
"We
were accused of attempting to overthrow the president and it was the president
himself who led the charges," Zimbabwe's Daily News quoted Gumbo as
saying. "He says 'we have done wrong and should leave the party,' but this
is just a smear campaign to eliminate people who are standing by the vice
president."
Another
alleged conspirator named by The Sunday Mail is Didymus Mutasa, a high-ranking
official in the ruling party. Without citing sources, the newspaper said
another alleged plotter had met "potential hitmen" in South Africa
and Israel.
Mugabe
has often accused foreign powers, particularly Britain and the United States,
of trying to undermine him. Western leaders have criticized Mugabe's human
rights record.
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