Zimbabwe’s sacked vice-president Joice Mujuru on Thursday said she would fight her expulsion from the ruling Zanu-PF party after falling out with President Robert Mugabe. Mrs Mujuru, who was previously tipped as Mugabe’s likely successor, was sacked as vice-president in December and expelled last week by Zanu-PF for allegedly plotting against the president. Many of her allies in government were also fired and expelled from Zanu-PF. She has held cabinet posts in every government since independence in 1980. Mugabe replaced Mrs Mujuru as vice-president with his justice minister Emmerson Mnangagwa, a hardliner in the regime.
Mujuru, who was previously tipped as Mugabe’s likely successor, was expelled last week by ZANU-PF for allegedly plotting against the 91-year-old president.
“I am one who can never be expelled from the original and genuine ZANU-PF,” Mujuru said in her first public reaction to her dismissal.
She said in a statement that the ZANU-PF’s decision to expel her was based on an “unsubstantiated, malicious and hateful campaign”.
Mujuru fell out with Mugabe last year and was sacked as vice-president in December.
Many of her allies in government were also fired and expelled from ZANU-PF after Mugabe accused her of plotting to oust him.
Joice Mujuru is a former guerrilla fighter from the liberation war in the former Rhodesia and the widow of army commander Solomon Mujuru, who died in a mysterious house fire in 2011.
