|
Party in-fighting riles Mugabe
01/10/2006 17:52 - (SA)
Harare - Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe has expressed dismay at in-fighting among senior members of his ruling party who are jostling for position in the undeclared contest to succeed the 82-year-old.
"Let us be wary of in-fighting among us," Mugabe was quoted by the state-controlled Sunday Mail as telling a meeting of party supporters.
"The succession issue ... I do not think it is good for us to fight over this issue. We have a leadership within the party and the issue can be discussed at that level.
"We also have the (ruling party) conference where this can be discussed.
No one is prohibited from entering the contest, but we should not cause confusion among the people. No, we would not want that," he added in his speech in Chiweshe, 80km northeast of Harare.
Has hinted at Joyce Mujuru
While no one has formally declared an interest in succeeding Mugabe, senior officials in the Zimbabwe African National Union - Patriotic Front (Zanu-PF) have been busy laying the groundwork behind the scenes.
Mugabe, who has indicated in the past a desire to step down before his term expires in 2008, has held back from formally endorsing a successor.
However, he has hinted strongly that he supports vice-president Joyce Mujuru.
"When you choose her as vice-president, you don't want her to remain in that position, do you?" Mugabe told the party's annual congress after her election in December 2004.
Mujuru said in an interview earlier this year that she was willing to become president, but only with the blessing of Zanu-PF.
In December 2004, the ruling party suspended senior officials including the then-information minister Jonathan Moyo on charges of holding a clandestine meeting to oppose the election of Mujuru as party vice-president.
Mugabe, in power since independence in 1980, has attacked some politicians in the past for consulting fortune-tellers about their presidential prospects.
|
News
Zimbabwe Special Report
