The decision making body of the Zimbabwe\u2019s ruling party has proposed allowing President Robert Mugabe to directly choose his deputies, two members of the party\u2019s Politburo said, asking not to be identified because an announcement hasn\u2019t been made.<\/p>\n
Altering Zanu-PF\u2019s constitution will permit Mugabe, who turns 91 in February, to appoint two vice presidents instead of having them elected at the party\u2019s five-year congress next month. The proposal needs to be ratified at the congress.<\/p>\n
The move follows accusations of corruption and treason made against Vice President Joice Mujuru by Mugabe\u2019s wife, Grace, who has called for Mujuru\u2019s immediate resignation.<\/p>\n
Zimbabwe\u2019s state-controlled Chronicle newspaper reported Nov. 11 that the change would bring the Zanu-PF Constitution in line with the 1987 Unity Accord it signed to merge with the Zimbabwe African People\u2019s Union, then led by Joshua Nkomo. Mugabe\u2019s Zanu primarily represented Zimbabwe\u2019s Shona majority in the 1970s war for independence, while most Zapu supporters were members of the minority Ndebele people.<\/p>\n
That accord came after about 20,000 Ndebele civilians were killed in a crackdown on armed dissidents by the Zimbabwean military.<\/p>\n
Infighting within Zanu-PF has seen perceived supporters of Mujuru fired or suspended by the party in recent weeks after Grace Mugabe, an ally of Justice Minister Emmerson Mnangagwa, began a series of verbal attacks on Mujuru during a series of \u201cMeet the People\u201d rallies ahead of the party\u2019s congress.<\/p>\n
Less Plotting<\/p>\n
The changes to Zanu-PF\u2019s constitution will allow Mugabe to choose his own two deputies and will also minimize plotting against the president, one of the people said.<\/p>\n
Zimbabwe\u2019s state-controlled Sunday Mail said Nov. 16 that Mujuru was at the center of a plot to assassinate Mugabe, charges she immediately denied.<\/p>\n
The infighting within Zanu-PF will be resolved \u201cwithin 10 days,\u201d Information Minister Jonathan Moyo said today by phone from Harare, the capital.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not unusual for political parties to have differences anywhere in the world and this one will be settled at congress,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Bloomberg<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The decision making body of the Zimbabwe\u2019s ruling party has proposed allowing President Robert Mugabe to directly choose his deputies, two members of the party\u2019s Politburo said, asking not to be identified because an announcement hasn\u2019t been made. Altering Zanu-PF\u2019s constitution will permit Mugabe, who turns 91 in February, to appoint two vice presidents instead […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2000055138,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[100],"byline":[170],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-17522","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-africa","byline-igihe"],"bylines":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"contributors":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"featured_image":{"id":2000055138,"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton17522.jpg","alt":"","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","width":0,"height":0,"sizes":{"thumbnail":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton17522.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton17522.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium_large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton17522.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton17522.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"full":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton17522.jpg","width":0,"height":0}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17522","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17522"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17522\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2000055138"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17522"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17522"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17522"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=17522"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=17522"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}