Zimbabwe: Vice president hits back over Mugabe assassination claims

Zimbabwean state media have sensationally claimed Vice President Joice Mujuru was complicit in a plot to kill the country's President Robert Mugabe, as the 90 year old leader's intriguing succession becomes murkier. The vice president's allies are said to have engaged assassins in neighbouring South Africa and Israel. Mujuru has in the past month faced a barrage of attacks from her colleagues, as she is accused of corruption, greed factionalism and lately treason. Closed out by the usually available state media, the beleaguered vice president took out full page advertisements in the private media, where for the first time she responded to allegations from the state media and First Lady Grace Mugabe. "My fellow citizens and countrymen, each of you will have no doubt seen, read or heard about what appears to be a relentless attack on my person in the public media," Mujuru wrote. "I regret that certain persons have elected to make false, unsubstantiated, malicious, defamatory and irresponsible statements about me." A seemingly measured Mujuru, despite the growing calls for her resignation, said she stood "ready to defend myself before the party and in any court of law on any of the allegations made against me, at any time, in accordance with the laws of Zimbabwe". Grace Mugabe has led the charge against Mujuru, who she has described as unfit for consumption by dogs and flies. The vice president's allies have in recent weeks suffered an unprecedented purge, with the biggest casualty being the ruling party's spokesman, Rugare Gumbo who was suspended for five years. Gumbo and Didymus Mutasa, a minister in the presidency, have been accused of plotting to assassinate Mugabe, while an unnamed minister has also been accused of hiring assassins. "No amount of malicious, hurtful and false statements about me, my late husband, my family, children, associates or business interests (real or imagined) can deter me from the mission at hand, that is to assist President Mugabe in driving the social and economic programmes of his government to successful fruition," Mujuru said in a statement on Sunday night. *Source theafricareport]]>