President Robert Mugabe says some people within the ruling party and government are attempting to remove him from power by manipulating currency to trigger inflation and initiating crippling price increases of basic commodities.
Addressing thousands of people today at the National Heroes Acre in Harare attending the burial of the late Maria Msika, wife of the late Vice President Joseph Msika, President Mugabe said some of them were behaving like the Biblical Judas Scariot.
He is quoted by the state-controlled Herald newspaper as saying, “There are those who tamper with our currency to trigger inflation. Those people are among us. Like Jesus said that those we eat with are the ones who will sell us out. The Judas Iscariots of our times. Let’s pluck them off.”
He claimed that the unnamed people wanted to remove him from power. “To those who are scheming to effect regime change, they will not succeed.
“Some of them want to use the confusion to effect regime change. I did not wrestle this position from anyone. I was elected by the people. I don’t want to let it go. All this is yours. I am still in charge.”
A Zanu PF faction allegedly led by Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa and another one said to be led by First Lady Grace Mugabe are fighting for the succession of the president.
Mnangagwa and Mrs. Mugabe have claimed that they don’t habor any presidential ambitions.