Grace Mugabe fires party chair

Factional fighting in Zanu-PF has worsened in Masvingo after Grace Mugabe fired provincial chairperson Shylet Uyoyo and replaced her with former minister Senator Shuvai Mahofa.

After a lengthy closed-door meeting last week Grace said after consultations with party supporters she had discovered that the chair was no longer popular - so she stripped her of her post.

As some supporters began to grumble she hastily added "I have already talked with Uyoyo and she is not going to complain because I am going to give her a more senior post in the women's league."

But Uyoyo said she would not leave her post as it had been given to her by the electorate. "You have to understand that being a chair of a province is not easy. I was elected by the people and only the people have the mandate to remove me," she said.

"After all when I was elected as chairlady of the province the first lady was not even there and who is she now to come and say she has fired me?" fumed Uyoyo.

Mahofa accepted her appointment and told party supporters she would work hard to uplift the lives of women.

Turning to the issue of cabinet ministers who were fanning factionalism in Masvingo, Grace said she would soon convince her husband not to retain some cabinet ministers who were causing trouble in the party, yet they were uneducated.

"We are going to make you jobless and this means you will no longer be able to get money to buy support," she said, in apparent reference to Energy Minister Dzikamai Mavhaire and Provincial Affairs Minister Kudakwashe Bhasikiti.

"Do you think we do not have young people who can take over your positions, after all if we look and your backgrounds you not educated," said the first lady. "You do not have a single degree and even a diploma so you have to know that your days are numbered," she added.

Mavhaire and Bhasikiti are believed to be loyal to vice president Joice Mujuru.