{"id":65932,"date":"2014-11-17T16:37:57","date_gmt":"2014-11-17T16:37:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/4cd.e16.myftpupload.com\/?p=65932"},"modified":"2014-11-17T16:37:57","modified_gmt":"2014-11-17T16:37:57","slug":"zimbabwes-joyce-mujuru-denies-plotting-kill-mugabe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=65932","title":{"rendered":"Zimbabwe&#8217;s Joyce Mujuru denies plotting to kill Mugabe"},"content":{"rendered":"<p id=\"story_continues_1\" class=\"introduction\">Zimbabwe&#8217;s vice-president says she is taking legal action against state-owned media for linking her to an alleged plot to kill President Robert Mugabe.<\/p>\n<p>Joyce Mujuru said she had ordered her lawyers to restore her &#8220;political standing&#8221; after being falsely accused of treason and corruption.<\/p>\n<p>The Sunday Mail newspaper reported that a hit-man had planned to kill Mr Mugabe so that Mrs Mujuru could take power.<\/p>\n<p>Last month, Mr Mugabe, 90, said he did not plan to step down.<\/p>\n<p>He has governed Zimbabwe since independence in 1980.<\/p>\n<p><strong><span class=\"cross-head\">&#8216;Demonic&#8217;<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Mr Mugabe and Mrs Mujuru were once close comrades, but have now fallen out as a succession war rages in the ruling Zanu-PF party ahead of its annual congress next month, says the BBC&#8217;s Brian Hungwe in the capital, Harare.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Mugabe&#8217;s wife Grace Mugabe has recently led a sustained public campaign against Mrs Mujuru, calling on her to resign.<\/p>\n<div class=\"caption full-width\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/news.bbcimg.co.uk\/media\/images\/79080000\/jpg\/_79080389_79080388.jpg\" alt=\"Robert Mugabe and Grace Mugabe in Harare (28 October 2014)\" width=\"624\" height=\"351\" \/><\/div>\n<div class=\"caption full-width\">Grace Mugabe&#8217;s entry into politics has raised speculation that she may take over from her husband<\/div>\n<p>She has accused the vice-president of being &#8220;demonic&#8221; and divisive&#8221;, and extorting money from companies, the AFP news agency reports.<\/p>\n<p>Mrs Mujuru&#8217;s statement, denying she is plotting against Mr Mugabe, is unprecedented, our reporter says.<\/p>\n<p>Although she does not give any indication that she plans to quit, she is under intense pressure and has few options, he adds.<\/p>\n<p>The Sunday Mail made the sensational claim that top government officials linked to Mrs Mujuru sought to hire a hit-man to assassinate Mr Mugabe in order to open the way for her to become president, he adds.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I deny any and all allegations of treason, corruption, incompetence and misuse of public office being routinely made against me in The Herald and The Sunday Mail newspapers,&#8221; Mrs Mujuru said in a statement.<\/p>\n<p>She had asked her lawyers to take the &#8220;necessary steps at law to restore my good reputation, political standing and dignity&#8221;, she said.<\/p>\n<p><strong><span class=\"cross-head\">&#8216;Spill Blood&#8217;<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Mrs Mujuru and Justice Minister Emmerson Mnangagwa, who in the past controlled the secret police and military, are seen as the leading contenders to succeed Mr Mugabe.<\/p>\n<p>Mrs Mugabe&#8217;s surprise entry into politics this year, and her nomination to lead Zanu-PF&#8217;s women&#8217;s wing, has also fuelled speculation that she could be planning to take over from her husband.<\/p>\n<p>Last month, Mr Mugabe said he did not plan to step aside for young politicians who did not appreciate his role in the struggle against colonialism and imperialism.<\/p>\n<p>Mrs Mujuru took part in the 1970s guerrilla war against white-minority rule, led by Mr Mugabe.<\/p>\n<p>Her nom de guerre was Teurai Ropa (Spill Blood).<\/p>\n<p>She married Solomon Mujuru, the former army chief seen as Zimbabwe&#8217;s king-maker in 1977.<\/p>\n<p>He died in a fire at his farm in 2011.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Source: BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Zimbabwe&#8217;s vice-president says she is taking legal action against state-owned media for linking her to an alleged plot to kill President Robert Mugabe. Joyce Mujuru said she had ordered her lawyers to restore her &#8220;political standing&#8221; after being falsely accused of treason and corruption. The Sunday Mail newspaper reported that a hit-man had planned to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":65933,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[38,14],"class_list":["post-65932","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-palaver-newspaper","tag-papa-owusu-ankomah"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65932","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=65932"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65932\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/65933"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=65932"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=65932"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=65932"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}