Zimbabwe's fired vice president issues challenge to Mugabes
President Robert Mugabe has sacked Emmerson Mnangagwa as vice president and the governing Zanu-PF has expelled him from the party. Mugabe's wife Grace now looks set to become vice president. Mnangagwa has vowed to fight back.
Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe looks on as his deputy Emmerson Mnangagwa reads a card during Mugabe's 93rd birthday celebrations in Harare, Zimbabwe, February 21, 2017.
Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe accused his fired deputy and former protege Emmerson Mnangagwa of showing impatience in his bid to succeed him.
He is also accused of consulting witchdoctors and prophets as part of his campaign to secure the presidency.
Mnangagwa, who was sacked by Mugabe on Monday, said he had fled Zimbabwe because of death threats and was safe.
"My sudden departure was caused by incessant threats on my person, life and family by those who have attempted before through various forms of elimination including poisoning," he said.
Mnangagwa has not been seen in public since his dismissal from government, but his ally Mutsvangwa said he was "safe and beyond the reach of the assassins."
TRT World's Philip Owira reports.
Vows to fight back
Mnangagwa issued a direct challenge to Mugabe and his wife.
The ruling ZANU-PF party "is not personal property for you and your wife to do as you please," Mnangagwa said in an angry five-page statement, vowing he would return to Zimbabwe to lead party members.
His vow to fight back marked a new level of political instability in Zimbabwe, where Mugabe, who is the world's oldest head of state and is in increasingly frail health, has ruled unopposed for decades.
Mnangagwa, 75, had been one of the president's closest allies since Mugabe took power in 1980 after leading the fight against British rule.
'Pitfalls and death'
Mugabe said on Wednesday the route to leadership was long and full of "pitfalls and death," he said addressing supporters at the headquarters of his ZANU-PF party in Harare, capital of Zimbabwe.
Mugabe said Mnangagwa, nicknamed "Crocodile", had made the same mistakes as Joice Mujuru, who was the president's deputy for 10 years until she was fired in 2014.
"You should not try to say because the journey is long, then I should take a short cut to arrive quickly. The road has lions. There are pitfalls. There is death, beware," he said.
"There is no short cut to being the leader of the people. Just as there was no short cut to our independence."
ZANU-PF would move to discipline Mnangagwa's "co-conspirators," Mugabe added.
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