'Mujuru tried juju on me,' claims Mugabe

PRESIDENT ROBERT Mugabe yesterday upped his attacks on Vice-President Joice Mujuru, sensationally claiming she had tried to destroy him by using juju, meeting with witch doctors, and in case these strategies failed, she was considering shooting him and taking over power.

Addressing the central committee yesterday ahead of the party's congress, Mugabe said Mujuru and her faction, who were plotting his ouster, had faded away.

At the top table, usually reserved for Mugabe, Mujuru, Zanu-PF chairman Simon Khaya Moyo and secretary for administration Didymus Mutasa, Mugabe only sat with Moyo, while the other two were away.

"How can you do that when the promises we made to the people that made us win the July 31 election have not been fulfilled?" Mugabe said.

"That's when you realise that this country was fought for and you can't afford to sleep and dance with the enemy."

Until Tuesday, Mugabe had not publicly spoken on allegations his deputy faced, while his wife First Lady Grace Mugabe accused Mujuru of several crimes.

"Money, money, money, yes, money can give us joy, but it can create sorrow for us," he said.

"Also and when you look at ourselves just one year after our resounding victory, we ask why there are only two faces at the high table.

"Where are all others gone. Where have all the soldiers gone? Yes, the soldiers who sacrificed for good cause, they are not dead, they faded out.

"But those who die for a cause don't fade away."

Mugabe lambasted Mujuru for being power-hungry and said she should have waited to challenge him and not to plot against him.

"You start from the bottom, you were a nobody, you acquire a position in the central committee and then you are promoted to be in the inner core of the central committee, which we call the politburo, you are on the driving seat and it's pleasurable and you want to occupy that seat even if you don't qualify," he said.

"Wanting the position at the very top . . ."

Mugabe said that from the liberation struggle, people were chosen into positions and he was also chosen into the position of president after Ndabaningi Sithole left Zanu. Mugabe had been secretary-general.

"We all thought we were united from top to bottom and that there were no machinations among us, but alas, we were deceived," he continued.

"We did not know that as we went to elections in July, some of us from the top didn't want those elections at all."

Mugabe said the Mujuru camp thought that after winning the election, he would relinquish power for her to rule.

"I go to elections, fight an election and I am expected to bow to my deputy and say I won an election, you can take over?

"Did I not hear that or read that this man was going to die in September?

"But the man refused to die in that September and is still refusing to die," he said.

Mugabe said that former Zanu-PF Mashonaland East chairman Ray Kaukonde sought for a sangoma and tadpoles, one representing Mugabe and the other representing Mujuru to perform rituals.

"One of the n'angas said look for two tadpoles of different colours one should be named Mugabe and the other should be called Mujuru and put them in water," he said.

"That's what happened.

"They were made to fight and if Mugabe's tadpole died then she would rule.

"Now if mine won against yours, it seems that is what happened then."

Mugabe said Mujuru wanted to force the apostolic sect led by one Mutumwa to bless her as ruler of the country, but the church refused, saying as long as Mugabe, who was appointed by God was alive, she would not be blessed to rule.

Mugabe said what he had shared on attempts by Mujuru to land the post was little compared to what he had heard.

He said the Mujuru camp had planned its structures, saying others were from the Justice minister Emmerson Mnangagwa camp and had already mapped a strategy.

"Mutasa, I asked the chairman (Simon Khaya Moyo) if they had an agreement," he said.

"He said he wanted to be chairman.

"I said it has someone already, who told you he was going. He didn't deny he wanted that post. Others were plotting evil.

"Such ambition. If that can't happen, they use other means, let's get the president out of the way so they even wanted to shoot the president."

Mugabe said Grace could not stomach Mujuru's sabotage and even as she did her countrywide tours, there were people plotting to disrupt the meetings. He said he had seen a lot in the party, including revolts, including one plotted by suspended party spokesperson Rugare Gumbo in 1978.

"Now people like Gumbo want to repeat that again after we pardoned them," he said.

"If we are left with people like this, the party will die and we go back to whites because they said I am the hindrance to meet with whites and they will bring billions in our economy.