Zimbabwe ruling party picks woman as Mugabe deputy

Joyce Mujuru. Picture / Reuters

HARARE - Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PF have confirmed the first woman to become his deputy, at the end of a party congress which also endorsed him as leader for another five years.

Mugabe is expected to purge some party officials to end wrangling sparked by the nomination of Water Resources and Infrastructure Development Minister Joyce Mujuru to the post.

Her appointment as the second vice president in the party is likely to lead to a similar position in government, making Mujuru a leading contender as Mugabe's eventual successor.

The selection was engineered by a group opposed to a bid by speaker of parliament Emmerson Mnangagwa for the post.

A majority of ZANU-PF provincial executives backed Mujuru, 49, whose appointment was confirmed by delegates at ZANU-PF's five-yearly congress.

Mugabe and his other vice-president, Joseph Msika, were confirmed in their posts by the more than 9,000 delegates. Both are in their 80s.

The ZANU-PF chairman, John Nkomo, also kept his position.

MORE TO BE PURGED

Mugabe threw the party into disarray last month by bowing to pressure to choose Mujuru as the first woman co-vice president of the party, sidelining Mnangagwa, who was seen as his heir apparent.

Earlier this week Mugabe and his inner cabinet suspended seven top officials and reprimanded another for their role in what was said to be a plot to scuttle Mujuru's election.

Mugabe, in power since independence from Britain in 1980, is expected to purge more officials from the party as it gears up for parliamentary elections next March.

The general expectation here is that the president and the party should punish everyone facing charges of indiscipline," one official said earlier.

"But it's also possible some people will get away with reprimands because the party must be careful not to weaken itself as we go to (parliamentary) elections," the official said.

Mugabe said when he opened the congress that ZANU-PF should plot a strategy to win the March parliamentary polls and to bury the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).

The MDC - which says it was robbed of victory in the last parliamentary polls, in June 2000 - has threatened to boycott the March contest unless there are "real" electoral reforms.

But many expect the MDC to bow to public pressure and participate.

Mugabe has been accused by the MDC and mostly Western countries of rigging his re-election in 2002 and ZANU-PF's equally controversial victory in the 2000 polls.

Mugabe's presidential term lasts until 2008.

- REUTERS