{Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe has been re-appointed as leader of the ruling party, while his wife Grace has been given a top position in the party.}<\/p>\n
Grace Mugabe’s promotion to head of Zanu-PF’s women’s wing puts her in a good position to succeed her husband in the future, analysts say.<\/p>\n
The First Lady has criticised political rivals, including Vice-President Joice Mujuru, in recent months.<\/p>\n
Mr Mugabe, 90, is due to stand for election again in 2018.<\/p>\n
Speaking at Zanu-PF’s congress, Mr Mugabe thanked thousands of supporters for choosing him as party leader.<\/p>\n
“I know where I come from… I am not greater than the people who gave birth to me,” Mr Mugabe, who has led Zimbabwe since 1980, said.<\/p>\n
Assassination allegations<\/p>\n
The First Lady’s appointment as head of the women’s wing is seen as a further sign that Mrs Mujuru, who was once seen as a potential successor to Mr Mugabe, has been sidelined.<\/p>\n
Mrs Mujuru fought alongside Mr Mugabe for Zimbabwe’s independence from white-minority rule.<\/p>\n
However, her career ran into trouble when Mrs Mugabe, 49, entered politics this year, and accused the deputy of plotting against her husband.<\/p>\n
Speaking to the congress on Thursday, Mr Mugabe described Mrs Mujuru as a corrupt thief, and said she had planned to assassinate him.<\/p>\n
He said he welcomed the fact that his wife had exposed Mrs Mujuru’s attempt to oust him.<\/p>\n
However, recently expelled Zanu-PF member Rugare Gumbo claimed that Mr Mugabe had targeted Mrs Mujuru to advance the “fortunes” of his wife.<\/p>\n
The congress also gave Mr Mugabe the power to appoint his deputies – increasing his control over the party.<\/p>\n
Mr Mugabe told supporters that he would announce a successor to Mrs Mujuru later this week, AP news agency reported.<\/p>\n
With Mrs Mujuru’s fall from grace, there is speculation that Justice Minister Emmerson Mnangagwa will be given a top position.<\/p>\n
BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
{Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe has been re-appointed as leader of the ruling party, while his wife Grace has been given a top position in the party.} Grace Mugabe’s promotion to head of Zanu-PF’s women’s wing puts her in a good position to succeed her husband in the future, analysts say. The First Lady has criticised […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2000055388,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[100],"byline":[170],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-17781","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":2000055388,"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton17781.jpg","alt":"","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","width":0,"height":0,"sizes":{"thumbnail":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton17781.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton17781.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium_large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton17781.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton17781.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"full":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton17781.jpg","width":0,"height":0}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17781","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=17781"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17781\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2000055388"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17781"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17781"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17781"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=17781"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=17781"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}