Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe's attempts to impose his wife
as his successor is believed to have pushed the military to intervene,
throwing the southern African country into turmoil.
First
Lady Grace Ntombizodwa Mugabe had been on a collision course with the
military, which she accused of trying to impose sacked vice president
Emmerson Mnangagwa as her husband's successor.
The
president's 52-year-old wife was due to be installed as Zanu-PF and
country's vice-president at the party's extraordinary congress slated
for mid-December.
Army commander General Constantino
Chiwenga, a key ally of Mr Mnangagwa, had on Monday warned that the
military may be forced to step in to stop the purges in the ruling
party.
The situation took a dramatic turn the following
day when army tanks started rolling into the capital Harare. After
midnight, reports started emerging that several ministers linked to a
Zanu-PF faction backing Mrs Mugabe, known as G40, had been arrested.
They
include Finance minister Ignatius Chombo, who is also the Zanu-PF
secretary for administration, and Local Government minister, Saviour
Kasukuwere and Higher Education minister Jonathan Moyo.
Prof Moyo, a Zanu-PF strategist, was publicly singled out by Gen
Chiwenga as a foreign spy who was working to destroy the ruling party
from within. The outspoken minister prepared a dossier of Mr Mnangagwa's
alleged crimes that included corruption and attempted murder that were
being used to push for the ousted VP's exit.
According
to the army statement announcing the unprecedented intervention, only
'criminals' surrounding President Mugabe were being targeted in the
crackdown that was initially confined to Harare.
Grace Mugabe's profile
Once
a quiet figure known for her shopping and charity work, she now has a
high-profile role in the ruling Zanu-PF party as the head of its women's
league and she has been instrumental in the ousting of several
potential successors to the presidency.
Her main rival, Mr Mnangagwa, was the latest and having been accused of disloyalty was sacked in early November 2017.
Mr
Mnangagwa, a former justice minister who Mrs Mugabe had once called
"loyal and disciplined", had replaced Mrs Joice Mujuru as the vice
president in 2014.
By 2017, Mrs Mugabe was publicly calling on her husband to remove him claiming that his supporters were planning a coup.
By 2017, Mrs Mugabe was publicly calling on her husband to remove him claiming that his supporters were planning a coup.
When he fell ill at a rally and had to be airlifted
out of the country for treatment, his supporters blamed poison
administered through ice cream from Mrs Mugabe's dairy farm. She denied
the allegation.
He later said he had been poisoned, but it was "false and malicious" to suggest it was at the hands of the first lady.
In
November, Mr Mugabe sacked Mr Mnangagwa accusing him of consulting
witchdoctors and prophets as part of a campaign to secure the
presidency.
Mrs Mugabe has won key party members' support - including her husband's - for succeeding him to the vice-presidency.
At
52 she is four decades younger than her husband, the world's oldest
ruler, who has governed Zimbabwe since the end of white-minority rule in
1980.
His party has nominated the 93-year-old to
stand for re-election next year, but he has been on several medical
trips to Singapore this year and there are concerns about his health.
Mrs
Mugabe has always been a staunch supporter of her husband - earlier
this year she memorably said that he could even win votes as a corpse.
She
herself has not denied wanting to take the helm of the country, and at a
2014 rally she said: "They say I want to be president. Why not? Am I
not a Zimbabwean?"
In the same year, Mrs Mugabe spearheaded the ousting of a former ally, then-Vice-President Joice Mujuru.
She
said the vice-president, who had served as the president’s deputy for
10 years, should be sacked from government because she was "corrupt, an
extortionist, incompetent, a gossiper, a liar and ungrateful" and
accused her of collaborating with opposition forces and white people to
undermine the country's post-independence gains.
A few months later Mrs Mujuru was expelled from Zanu-PF. She and her supporters have since set up a new party.
But political opponents have warned against a dynasty taking shape.
She has also been criticised for seeking to use her diplomatic immunity when accused of assaulting a 20-year-old South African model with a plug. This was not the first time she was accused of physical assault.
Along
with her husband, Mrs Mugabe is subject to EU and US sanctions,
including travel bans, imposed over the seizure of land belonging to
white people and accusations of rigged elections and crackdowns on
political opposition.
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