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From Clemence Manyukwe  and  Nduduzo Tshuma in Harare
VICE President Joice Mujuru consulted muti-men about how to take over power in Zimbabwe, and when that failed, her associates drew up plans to “shoot” President Robert Mugabe, Zanu-PF’s Central Committee was told at the party’s congress in Harare yesterday.In a dramatic escalation of the fallout between the country’s two most senior politicians, President Mugabe said his number two had become so impatient to take over power she solicited his death.

Cde Mujuru and her acolytes, Cde Mugabe said, had set September this year as the month he was supposed to die.

President Mugabe told his shocked party faithful: “This man was to die in September and he refused to die in that September, and still refuses to die. ‘Ah, it now needs sangomas’. They say to (Ray) Kaukonde, ‘look for a sangoma’.

“The other sangoma said, ‘look for tadpoles with different colours, one would be Mugabe the other one would be Mujuru and put them in water’. They would fight and if Mugabe’s dies, then he goes. What I don’t know is what if mine bites yours and it dies, what will you do? I think that’s what happened.”

President Mugabe said ousted Zanu-PF Mashonaland East provincial chairperson Cde Ray Kaukonde was sent to do Cde Mujuru’s dirty errands, while the former party spokesperson Rugare Gumbo, who was expelled yesterday, aided them as a continuation of his treachery that began during the 1970s bush war of independence.

He described Cde Mujuru’s plots as “foolish and idiotic”, telling the Central Committee that his own political making was through decisions that were made by the party, from  the days he was in the National Democratic Party (NDP), Zapu and then in Zanu-PF.

“During our time in the NDP, Zapu, Zanu, you didn’t choose what to be. The party chose for you what you should be and you accepted that. You accepted any post that came your way,” President Mugabe said in a speech lasting slightly over an hour.

He said he had seen many rebellions since the time of the Nhari Rebellion during the independence war against white colonial rule.

“They planned to take power by force, that was in 1978. (Rugare) Gumbo now wants to repeat, when we forgave you. No!”

Cde Mujuru, who missed the Politburo meeting on Tuesday, also boycotted yesterday’s Central Committee meeting. Also missing were the party’s secretary for administration Cde Didymus Mutasa and Labour Minister Cde Nicholas Goche, who are both believed to have been taken ill after their alleged plot to assassinate the Zanu-PF leader was exposed.

Cde Mugabe said Cde Mutasa had been hell-bent on taking over as the Zanu-PF chairman, and when he realised he could miss out, he drew up plans to “shoot” the President.

“Mutasa, I was asking the chairperson (Cde Simon Khaya-Moyo) if they fought. He was saying he wants the position and I said, ‘but how can you want a position that’s occupied, who said he was leaving?’ He was not denying that he wanted to be elevated,” President Mugabe said.

“The others had evil plans. These ambitions, if it can’t happen (to grab power), people look for ways to do it. ‘Let’s get the President out of the way’, so there were stories that we can even shoot him.”

Ambition was not a problem, President Mugabe said, but one had to be voted into power by the people. He said there must be unity in the provinces and demanded that the infighting should stop.

“We must be directed by our principles, our ideology,” the President said.

“Try to be content where you are. Sure, you’ve a right to contest for seats, that’s a democratic right. You can contest, also for the presidency instead of trying to oust the President. The people can vote for you, if they vote for you and you’ve more votes than the current President, that’s it. You’ve won. But to try and organise illegal ways of getting to power, that we shall not have. Never!”

He said when Zanu-PF went for the July 31, 2013, elections, he assumed that they were united as a party, but other members led by VP Mujuru had their own plans.

“July 31, 2013, was when we all united and in that state of determination, we voted resoundingly for the party. It was resounding victory for every province except of course the urban ones, Bulawayo and Harare,” he said.

“We all thought that we were united from top to bottom, and that there were no machinations amongst us, but alas, we were deceived. We didn’t know that as we were going for elections on July 31, some of us from the top didn’t want those elections at all. ‘What are the elections for? Let’s remain like this (in the inclusive government)’.

“We didn’t know that these views were being shared by some of us in Zanu-PF, at the top, at the MDC top, the (Tendai) Bitis who are saying now they didn’t want elections and they hoped that the GNU (government of national unity) would go longer.”

After Zanu-PF’s crushing election win, President Mugabe said Vice-President Mujuru and her lieutenants who imagined they were preparing their “future” drew up plans to wrest power from him.

“Some circumstance will arise, and the President gives way. I go to an election and fight and I’m elected. Then I’m expected to bow to my deputy and say, ‘I’ve won the election, take over’. That was one expectation, foolish and idiotic.

“Power, power, power, more power! You start from the bottom. You were a nobody. You acquire a position in the Central Committee, and then you’re promoted to be in the inner-core of the Central Committee which we call the Politburo. You’re now in the driving seat and it’s very pleasurable, comfortable. You now want to occupy the seat even if you do not qualify, wanting the seat that is at the very top.”

President Mugabe said he was aware of various other plots — big and small — by Cde Mujuru and her supporters.

“I’m giving you a few things, but they are many. I know what was happening, everywhere, even in mini-meetings. The meetings, all the plans, ‘how we want to proceed’. ‘These ones are mine who listen to me, and those are Emmerson’s, Emmerson Mnangagwa’. ‘These are mine’. ‘Our strategy needs these’,” he said, apparently referring to what Cde Mujuru  discussed in secret meetings with her co-conspirators.

The President said those who were plotting against him were of the view that when he was out of the way, the Americans and Europeans would pour billions of dollars into Zimbabwe.

He said America was against empowering its people and when President Barack Obama came up with a medical plan for the poor, he faced resistance.

Areas like Harlem, New Orleans and Brooklyn in the United States were still as squalid as they were in the 1960s, he said, wondering why if America was so rich they were failing to implement an education-for-all policy.

“If you’re American or European-minded, you don’t belong to Zanu-PF. Go there because we know that they’ll never let their riches be the foundation of the wealth of Africa.”

His government, he went on, has come up with the ZimAsset economic turnaround strategy document to transform the economy, but Western sanctions continued to slow down the pace of economic recovery.

“We’ve continued to fight the sanctions. Even though they’ve had a toll on us and our economy, we haven’t succumbed to the sanctions. We’ve continued to be on our feet,” added the President.

President Mugabe said there were still vast tracts of land in conservancies where government is not aware what is taking place there.

Zimbabwe could not pride itself as an independent country when some parts of the country were shielded away from the people.

“Conservancies in Chiredzi and Hwange, we don’t know what’s happening. The Americans fly in from South Africa  and we don’t know what’s happening,” he said.

The congress which concludes on Sunday would look at employment creation for graduates from the country’s colleges and universities, the President said.

He urged those with vast tracts of land to utilise it, or risk losing it.

President Mugabe will officially open the Zanu-PF congress today.