Police Commissioner Augustine Chihuri Steps down

Added by Senior Reporter on November 19, 2014.
Saved under SOUTHERN AFRICA, Zimbabwe
Tags: Augustine Chihuri, Police Commissioner, President Mugabe, Zanu PF i

Police Commissioner Augustine Chihuri last night tendered his resignation to President Mugabe as Zanu PF infighting filters into the country’s security agencies. On Wednesday a senior government official whose name cannot be revealed told reporters that the long serving police Commissioner tendered his resignation to the President amid pressure for him to arrest the embattled Vice-President Joyce Mujuru over alleged plot to assassinate Mugabe.

Police Spokeswoman Charity Charamba this afternoon refused to take calls but another senior Police officer confirmed that President Mugabe did receive a resignation letter but has not responded to the feisty Police Commissioner.

Mugabe is said be waiting for a crucial Politburo meeting taking place this Saturday. We also understand that Air force chief Air Marshall Perence Shiri and the Director-General Happyson Bonyongwe are also under the spotlight as the battle to succeed President Mugabe takes a new dangerous shift in direction.

Harare based political analyst Clifford Marongomo said things could turn to the worse if President Mugabe fails to show-up his leadership.“This could easily spin out of control for him and he has to stop this before it gets out of control,” he said.Mujuru was understood to have secured the backing of the top brass in the police and CIO spy service in what had all along appeared to be a joust with Justice Minister Emmerson Mnangagwa to eventually take over from President Robert Mugabe.

Chihuri has been on the spotlight for some time with Gokwe-Nembudziya MP Justice Mayor Wadyajena recently saying they were expecting the police to act on treason allegations leveled against Mujuru.If the police do not act against Mujuru, then “something will be wrong with our police”, the legislator added. The Mujuru camp has been on the ropes for weeks with Grace accusing the vice-president of plotting to oust her 90-year-old husband.

The clerk of Parliament Austin Zvoma has also been unceremoniously kicked-out of the institution after reaching his retirement age.Zvoma is set to step down this month-end after serving the law making chambers for 25 years.

“I have been told about that (retirement) but I am yet to see the letter. But I can tell you, I will remain a faithful, proudly Zimbabwean ready to assist,” he said adding that, “I will remain available to assist this great institution anytime”.

Zvoma had reportedly resisted retirement arguing that the new constitution allowed him to serve another two terms.

The relentless state media campaign against top government and Zanu PF officials thought to back Joice Mujuru continues with allegations public service and labour minister Nicholas Goche tried to hire hitmen to assassinate President Robert Mugabe. The Herald newspaper claimed that Goche used the cover of a government trip to Europe and made stop-overs in Israel and South Africa where he tried to hire assassins to take out the ageing Zanu PF leader. This follows allegations by sister publication, the Sunday Mail, that Mujuru planned to liquidate Mugabe if he refused to step-adown and allow the vice president to take over at the party’s congress in December.
Goche denied the allegations, telling the newspaper that he never travelled to Israel.

“I have never been to Israel,” he said. “You can check my passport to see if I have been to Israel.”
But that did not stop junior foreign affairs minister and new war veterans leader Chris Mutsvangwa from demanding the minister’s expulsion from cabinet.

Goche was appointed to government by Mugabe even though he played no role in the liberation struggle, Mutsvangwa charged.

“He now repays the President with treachery,” he added.“The time of impostors is over. He must resign or the President will give him the boot.”Mujuru has denied plotting to topple or assassinate Mugabe.

In a statement earlier this week, the vice president vowed to take legal action against The Herald and The Sunday Mail.

“I deny any and all the allegations of treason, corruption, incompetence, and misuse of public office being routinely made against me in The Herald and Sunday Mail Newspapers,” she said.
“I have briefed my legal practitioners to take the necessary steps, at law, to restore my good reputation, political standing and dignity.

“I stand ready to defend myself before the party, and in any court of law on any of the allegations made against me, at any time, in accordance with the laws of Zimbabwe.”

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