Augustine Chihuri resigns - rumour

Police Commissioner Augustine Chihuri last night tendered his resignation to President Mugabe as Zanu-PF infighting filters into the country's security agencies, The Zimbabwe Mail reported.

The publication claims that on Wednesday a senior government official whose name cannot be revealed told its reporter that the long serving police Commissioner tendered his resignation to the President amid pressure for him to arrest the embattled Vice-President Joyce Mujuru over alleged plot to assassinate Mugabe.

Police Spokeswoman Charity Charamba this afternoon refused to take our calls but another senior Police officer confirmed that President Mugabe did receive a resignation letter but has not responded to the feisty Police Commissioner.

Mugabe is said be waiting for a crucial Politburo meeting taking place this Saturday.

The publication also claims that the Airforce chief Air Marshall Perence Shiri and the Director-General Happyson Bonyongwe are also under the spotlight as the battle to succeed President Mugabe takes a new dangerous shift in direction.

Mujuru was understood to have secured the backing of the top brass in the police and CIO spy service in what had all along appeared to be a joust with Justice Minister Emmerson Mnangagwa to eventually take over from President Robert Mugabe.

Chihuri has been on the spotlight for sometime with Gokwe-Nembudziya MP Justice Mayor Wadyajena recently saying they were expecting the police to act on treason allegations levelled against Mujuru.

If the police do not act against Mujuru, then "something will be wrong with our police", the legislator added.

The Mujuru camp has been on the ropes for weeks with Grace accusing the vice-president of plotting to oust her 90-year-old husband.

The relentless state media campaign against top government and Zanu-PF officials thought to back Joice Mujuru continues with allegations public service and labour minister Nicholas Goche tried to hire hitmen to assassinate President Robert Mugabe.

The Herald newspaper claimed that Goche used the cover of a government trip to Europe and made stop-overs in Israel and South Africa where he tried to hire assassins to take out the ageing Zanu-PF leader.

This follows allegations by sister publication, the Sunday Mail, that Mujuru planned to liquidate Mugabe if he refused to step-down and allow the vice president to take over at the party's congress in December.

Goche denied the allegations, telling the newspaper that he never travelled to Israel.

"I have never been to Israel. You can check my passport to see if I have been to Israel," he said.

But that did not stop junior foreign affairs minister and new war veterans leader Chris Mutsvangwa from demanding the minister's expulsion from cabinet.

Goche was appointed to government by Mugabe even though he played no role in the liberation struggle, Mutsvangwa charged.

"He now repays the President with treachery. The time of impostors is over. He must resign or the President will give him the boot," he added.

Mujuru has denied plotting to topple or assassinate Mugabe.

In a statement earlier this week, the vice president vowed to take legal action against The Herald and The Sunday Mail.

"I deny any and all the allegations of treason, corruption, incompetence, and misuse of public office being routinely made against me in The Herald and Sunday Mail Newspapers. I have briefed my legal practitioners to take the necessary steps, at law, to restore my good reputation, political standing and dignity. I stand ready to defend myself before the party, and in any court of law on any of the allegations made against me, at any time, in accordance with the laws of Zimbabwe," she said.