Mugabe is said to have referred for the first time to the "Mujuru side" — meaning the Zanu PF faction led by Vice President and her husband, Rtd General Solomon Mujuru.

Mugabe accused Mujuru of plotting with Tekere, a former Zanu PF-secretary general, and publisher Ibbo Mandaza to use Tekere’s biography, A Lifetime of Struggle, to undermine him while in the process promoting her presidential bid.

"The Tekere/Mandaza issue, ah they are trying to campaign for Mujuru using the book…you can’t become a president by using a biography. Manje vairasa (they have lost the plot). They don’t realise they have done her more harm than good," Mugabe is captured as saying in the censored parts of the interview.

"Now, I thought people would, if they want to campaign, fine,campaign in the provinces. The machinery is not biographies; the people who vote for us are ordinary people of Zimbabwe. We have a congress that will decide. It is those people who will decide and I thought this is the way we would go about things, not the Mandaza way."

General Mujuru turned up at Mkoba Stadium in Gweru Saturday for Mugabe's bash unaccompanied. He nestled next to Senate President Edna Madzongwe. Mugabe had arrived 30 minutes earlier.

Presidential spokesman George Charamba told reporters the Vice President had been invited but could not attend because she was preparing for examinations. She is studying with the Women’s University in Africa.

But Mugabe's address in front of his loyalists and hundreds of school children would have done little to defuse building tensions between his supporters and Mujuru's camp.

Mugabe did not recognise General Mujuru's presence as he normally does, and there was no recognition of the Vice President's spouse among the VIPs.

Mugabe showered his other deputy, Joseph Msika, with praises and also paid tribute to his two late Vice Presidents Simon Muzenda and Joshua Nkomo. But there was no mention of Mujuru.

Bizarrely, a few hours earlier during a meeting held a a local teachers' college, Mugabe had claimed that some party members were enlisting the help of witch doctors to get him out of power.

He said: "The way to any post in the party is through the people. It is not through n’angas (witch doctors). Others are using biographies. We do not take notice of that but we move along the path, the people’s way."

Mugabe's comments come amid growing signs that his 27-year rule is now being openly challenged within his own party.

At a recent meeting with Zanu PF leaders in Mashonaland Central Province, officials told Mugabe that support was now divided between him and Mujuru, an official who attended the meeting told New Zimbabwe.com.

The meeting came after the Zanu PF annual conference in Goromonzi at which some provinces refused to endorse Mugabe's bid to extend his term beyond 2008 by two years under the pretext of "harmonising" the Presidential and Parliamentary elections.

Mashonaland Central governor Ephraim Masawi told Mugabe that senior party officials in the province were not working together and government programmes were at a standstill.

Said a source who attended: "Masawi told Mugabe, as other officials listened, that there was zero cohesion in the province between members of the politburo and central committee and nothing was moving (government projects).

"Mugabe just sat quietly and never responded."

Moments later, Zanu PF political commissar Elliot Manyika is said to have stood up to give a vote of thanks, but burrowed into Masawi and other senior officials whom he labelled "sell-outs".

Manyika is said to have told Mugabe: "Governor Masawi said our leadership is not working together and that this has brought government programmes to a standstill. As one of the leaders included, I want to say Cde Masawi is correct.

"Although he gave a correct assessment, he did not tell you why that is happening. Cde President, if you look up at the sky in Mashonaland Central, you see two suns.

"Mashonaland Central has two Presidents, there are some like Masawi who have Amai Mujuru as their President and others like me who have you as their President."

After his speech, Manyika broke into the slogan: "Pasi nevatengesi, pasi nevasinganzvisisi!" (Down with the sell-outs).

After Manyika's speech, Mugabe is said to have calmly told the gathering that he was aware of the problem.

"We saw that in Goromonzi (conference)," Mugabe replied.

At the Zanu PF conference, Mujuru's supporters used the slogan "Look East" to refer to Mashonaland East province which out rightly refused to endorse Mugabe's term extension. Mashonaland East governor, Ray Kaukonde, a Mujuru ally, tried to rally support for the Vice President.

Mashonaland Central governor Masawi, another Mujuru loyalist, attended Tekere's book launch in Harare. In the book, Tekere admits that he has received cash donations "from time to time" from General Mujuru and Masawi.

Tekere’s book portrays Mugabe as a reluctant leader who rose to power through political coups and detention-camp plots. It also says some of his leading comrades during the war viewed him as a "sell-out".

Mugabe has been angered by the book and Mandaza told New Zimbabwe.com: "Anything can happen. The threats from the President are unsettling."