'Mujuru not under house arrest'

Expelled Vice President Joice Mujuru has denied that she is under house arrest.

Speaking from her residence in Chisipite, Harare, she said news wire reports that she had been placed under house arrest were "mere rumours".

"I was at the farm now, who is peddling those rumours?" she asked the Daily News in a terse message yesterday.

Reports suggested that Mujuru, who was booted out of the presidium by President Robert Mugabe on Tuesday after being accused of attempting to remove her 90-year-old boss from power through unconstitutional means, had been placed under deadly surveillance.

She was  sacked together with  eight Cabinet ministers.

They were also accused of being corrupt and fanning factionalism within Zanu-PF.

Mujuru staunchly denied the accusations.

She has since been replaced by ex-Justice minister Emmerson Mnangagwa, who took oath of office yesterday.   

Following her dismissal, she told  Studio 7: "You know some people say politics is a dirty game, this time in Zanu-PF it has become dirtier. I have no capacity of doing those things. There is no way, and nobody has ever even suggested to me that these things that you are trying to do VP are wrong.

"It's politicking; these are some of the things that were started towards congress. We were some of us, especially I, not given a chance to explain even to discuss some of these things,"she said.