Mugabe reprimands his spin doctor

Mugabe reprimands his spin doctor

MOYO: In hot water

• Mugabe 'frightened' by own spin doctor

• Mugabe's own Joseph Goebbels

• Mnangagwa suffers crushing political defeat

• Mugabe says Zanu PF divided

• Mugabe wants female deputy

• Mnangagwa outsmarted in race for State House

• 'President Mnangagwa will be Zanu PF's Waterloo'

• Moyo clashes with Shamuyarira over Sky

• Nkomo declares war on 'saboteurs and infiltrators'

• Zanu PF editor at war with Moyo

• Moyo escapes censure as Mugabe drags feet

• Moyo, and the art of beautiful propaganda

• Moyo splashes cash in race for Tsholotsho

• Moyo for President?

• Moyo bars foreign cricket journalists

• Moyo orders Sky News crew out

• Matsanga deported in Sky News row

• Sky News debacle tears Zanu PF apart

• Moyo orders Sky News out, again

• Moyo 'to fill jails with lying journalists'

• Zanu PF set to grill Moyo

• Mugabe's spin doctor spends millions on album launch

• Moyo sings for his supper

• Mugabe's spin doctor eyes presidency

• Zanu PF at war over Mugabe's successor

• Deported Mugabe ally calls Moyo 'gay rant'

By Agencies

ZIMBABWEAN President Robert Mugabe suspended half a dozen senior ruling party officials and reprimanded his outspoken information minister over a succession row a few hours before a crucial congress started on Wednesday.

Mugabe chaired a meeting overnight on Tuesday of his party's supreme decision making body, the politburo, which decided to suspend six of the party's 10 provincial chairmen for convening an unsanctioned meeting two weeks ago.

Information Minister Jonathan Moyo "was reprimanded very strongly", according to party spokesperson Nathan Shamuyarira, "and apologised for having convened the meeting without the consent of the commissariat", state media reported.

The unsanctioned meeting at Moyo's rural home district of Tsholotsho was allegedly to campaign for parliamentary speaker Emmerson Mnangagwa, in defiance of the party's nominated female candidate Joyce Mujuru, to fill the vacant post of vice president.

The "night of long knives", as the state broadcaster described the meeting, came ahead of a five-day congress of the ruling Zanu-PF party that started with arrivals and registration of some 9000 delegates on Wednesday.

Analysts say whoever gets elected the second vice president at the party's congress is most likely to succeed Mugabe when his current term expires in 2008.

The congress draws representatives from China, Libya, Portugal, the United States and the Southern African Development Community and is the last before next March's parliamentary elections which Zanu-PF, in power for 24 years, is expected to win overwhelmingly.

Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front (Zanu-PF) senior officials belonging to the party's central committee, were to use Wednesday, the first day of the congress, to fine-tune and adopt the agenda ahead of an official opening ceremony Thursday morning.

Shamuyarira said the congress would also focus on next year's parliamentary elections, the controversial land reforms and the country's economic crisis.

At the end of the congress, Mugabe is expected to announce a new politburo while the party elects a new central committee to run the affairs of the party for the next five years.

Shamuyarira said the politburo would decide on what further action to take against Moyo who is one of its members.

The six provincial heads who were "suspended immediately" for six months, according to the state broadcaster, would not be allowed to attend the congress.

Their suspension "sent a clear message to all Zanu-PF cadres that there are no sacred cows in Zanu-PF," state television reported.

Mugabe has already been nominated by all the provinces to the post of party president for the coming five years, while the first vice preisdent Joseph Msika is also to retain his post.

Analysts believe Mujuru (52), stands a better chance of taking over from Mugabe, than Msika (81), on account of age.
AFP
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