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President Mugabe, the First Lady and Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa at the Central Committee meeting in Harare yesterday

Lloyd Gumbo Harare Bureau—
PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe yesterday named Emmerson Mnangagwa as his pick for Vice President – and then revealed a shock plot to kill the Justice Minister just hours before his appointment. Police were called to Cde Mnangagwa’s office at the Zanu-PF headquarters in Harare ahead of an extra-ordinary meeting of the party’s central committee after his personal assistant fell violently ill.

President Mugabe, who also named former diplomat Phelekezela Mphoko as the second Vice President, later told the central committee what happened.

“We’re aware of people who really want to harm us, physical harm also,” the Zanu-PF leader said.

“I’m talking about what happened at our Zanu-PF offices. The office of Cde Mnangagwa was broken into last night and poisonous powder was sprinkled all over the desk and so on.

“That powder, when the door opens, is blown up and then he would have inhaled it. But it was not Mnangagwa who opened the door, it was the secretary (Catherine Magaya) who opened the door and poor girl, there she was, she inhaled it and she is a mess. She is in Intensive Care just now.

‘Ko pamusana peyi? Chatatadza chii? (Why? What wrong have we done?) Why? Why? Why? We want investigations to be done. I’m just warning you that it’s not all those who smile at us that are our friends. Take care!”

Cde Mnangagwa’s appointment yesterday follows the sacking of former Vice President Joice Mujuru, a day earlier, after she was implicated in a plot to assassinate President Mugabe.

Cde Mujuru was sent home along with eight ministers thought to have been aiding her plot to oust President Mugabe through unconstitutional means. They include the Minister of State for Presidential Affairs Didymus Mutasa, who was recorded telling a girlfriend that President Mugabe “will be shot”, and his Public Service counterpart Nicholas Goche, who is alleged to have tried to engage “hitmen” in South Africa and Israel.

Senior Assistant Commissioner Charity Charamba last night confirmed police were investigating the incident at the Zanu-PF HQ.

“The Zimbabwe Republic Police has received a report to the effect that some poisonous substance was thrown into the Honourable Vice President and Second Secretary of Zanu-PF Cde Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa’s office at the Zanu-PF headquarters last night (Tuesday),” she said.

“We aren’t yet clear of the exact time. We wish to state that as the ZRP, we’re currently investigating this very serious incident and we strongly condemn this unlawful act and wish therefore to state that such acts of criminal sabotage and violence on senior government and party officials will be dealt with and the culprits shall face the full wrath of the law which will be applied once the culprits are identified.

“We’re appealing to anybody with information with regards to the incident to report to the nearest police station.”

It still could not be established last night what the substance was, although a report on the New Zimbabwe.com website claimed it was cyanide – a highly-toxic chemical compound which attacks the heart and central nervous system if inhaled or ingested orally. A cyanide solution as little as 200mg can kill within minutes if swallowed.

A source close to the investigation revealed last night: “When Magaya got into Cde Mnangagwa’s office to tidy it up, she saw some substance on the table and started feeling dizzy.

“She called the minister’s government office advising them about the break-in and her condition.

“A vehicle was immediately dispatched and took her to a private hospital where she was admitted into the intensive care unit. No visitors are allowed as her condition is bad.”

It is not the first time that Cde Mnangagwa’s offices have been targeted. Sometime in September, his offices at the New Government Complex were broken into barely a month after Chief Justice Godfrey Chidyausiku’s Mashonganyika Building offices were also burgled. A desktop computer and a television set are missing from that raid.

A few days after the break-in at the Supreme Court, four judges reportedly lost keys to their offices, a development that prompted the Judicial Services Commission to urgently request police security at Mashonganyika Building which houses the Supreme and the Constitutional courts.

In October this year, Cde Mnangagwa escaped unhurt after a bus owned by a public hospital and donated by the European Union rammed into his Mercedes in Harare.