Mugabe criticises 'witches' vying to succeed him

President Robert Mugabe criticised colleagues in his ruling party for jockeying to succeed him amid the Zimbabwe’s worst economic crisis since he led the nation to independence nearly three decades ago, state media reported today.

Mugabe, 82, acknowledged there was intense rivalry for his job among ranking politicians, some of whom were “already waiting by the door like a witch”.

Mugabe, the only black ruler since the end of colonial-era white rule in 1980, has suggested he might not run for another six-year term in the next presidential polls scheduled for 2008, but loyalists have proposed he stay on until at least 2010.

Mugabe described power struggles as “messy” and causing disharmony, the state Herald reported.

“Some will say power is power and I must get there by hook or by crook,” he said.

The ruling Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front is seen to be divided into two main factions vying for the succession, one led by former security minister and Parliament speaker Emmerson Mnangagwa and another headed by the powerful former army commander Gen. Solomon Mujuru and his wife, Joyce, who is currently a second vice president to Mugabe.

The two groups have been courting senior politicians to back them, spurring infighting. The party suffered its deepest rift in 2004 over Mugabe’s choice of Joyce Mujuru as a vice president, effectively favouring her faction over Mnangagwa’s group.

Mugabe suspended six top ruling-party rebels he accused then of campaigning against Mujuru, some arguing she was not suitable in fiercely male-dominated Zimbabwe society and her vice presidency was a ploy to block Mnangagwa as a possible successor to Mugabe.

The worst economic crisis since independence, with record inflation and acute shortages of hard currency, food, gasoline and essential imports, has fuelled divisions in the ruling party.

The opposition Movement for Democratic Change broke into two factions earlier this year and lost ground in by-elections and local district polls even in its urban strongholds, having been the first major challenge to Mugabe after its formation in 1999.

In weekend voting for district councils, the opposition won just 81 wards across the country to the ruling party’s 765, the state Electoral Commission reported today. The opposition lost control of 16 urban wards.

Mugabe blames drought, sanctions and his government’s isolation by Western nations, donors and investors for the economic crisis.

Aid and investment dried up after the often-violent campaign to seize thousands of white-owned commercial farms began in 2000, disrupting the agriculture-based economy.

Britain – the former colonial power – the European Union and the United States imposed visa restrictions on Mugabe and ruling party leaders to protest against abuse of human and democratic rights in Zimbabwe.