'Mugabe uses treason to cow opponents'

President Robert Mugabe has perfected the art of laying treason charges against anyone he feels is a threat to his throne, former politburo member Dzikamai Mavhaire has said.

This comes as Zanu-PF political commissar Saviour Kasukuwere is under the cosh for allegedly plotting to topple Mugabe.

Mavhaire - famed for challenging Mugabe to resign in 1997 - claimed the nonagenarian leader was using the same strategy to expel the combative Kasukuwere.

"What is happening to Kasukuwere is not new. Mugabe alleged us and (Joice) Mujuru were plotting to assassinate him. This is the only strategy Mugabe uses against his enemies. Previously, it was Morgan Tsvangirai, so to us this is not new," he said.

"Zanu-PF is now dying. We are going to see the expulsion of some senior members; this is the death of Zanu-PF. But people in Zanu-PF must not worry; life outside Zanu-PF is warmer. Also, the people of Zimbabwe must not worry about what is happening.

"At the moment, we must find solutions to rescue this country from the current economic problems," said Mavhaire, who was ruthlessly purged from the warring Zanu-PF in late 2014 together with Mujuru, Rugare Gumbo and Didymus Mutasa on untested claims of plotting to oust and assassinate Mugabe.

Previously, Tsvangirai escaped the gallows by a whisker after the State had preferred charges of treason against him, after the government claimed it had evidence that he wanted to assassinate Mugabe.

The case collapsed in 2004 after a year-long trial in which the State was relying on questionable evidence from a grainy videotape that was secretly recorded by Ari Ben Menashe, a discredited Canadian-based political consultant.

So many Mugabe foes were charged with treason, including war heroes like Lookout Masuku - who later died under house arrest - Dumiso Dabengwa, Welshman Ncube, Tsvangirai, PDP president Tendai Biti among others, a charge which the State could not sustain in court.

Before her expulsion, Mujuru, along with Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa, were seen as leading candidates to succeed Mugabe.

She had commanding respect of party's provincial structures.

Mujuru's political star in Zanu-PF first dimmed publicly in 2008 when Mugabe conspiratorially suspected that her late husband - the revered former liberation struggle icon, General Solomon Mujuru - engineered his embarrassing trouncing in that year's polls to Tsvangirai.

Mugabe and other Zanu-PF bigwigs claimed that the late Mujuru was behind the formation of Mavambo/Kusile/Dawn, an opposition party that is led by former Finance minister Simba Makoni.