I was poisoned, asserts Zimbabwe’s vice-president Emmerson Mnangagwa
Harare — Zimbabwean vice-president Emmerson Mnangagwa says poisoning was behind his hospital stay in August. Mnangagwa’s claim, made late on Thursday, raises the political temperature in the fight to succeed 93-year-old President Robert Mugabe. Mnangagwa, a former intelligence chief nicknamed "the Crocodile", is the leading candidate to succeed Mugabe, the only leader Zimbabwe has known since independence in 1980. He did not say who he believed was responsible for trying to kill him, and his main rival for the top job, first lady Grace Mugabe, swiftly denied having anything to do with it. Hours earlier, she told a public gathering at a nearby hotel on Thursday night that Mnangagwa and his allies were plotting a power grab that was tantamount to a coup, according to an audio recording of her speech. Mnangagwa was airlifted to Johannesburg after falling ill in August. At a news conference late on Thursday open only to state media, he said doctors had concluded that poisoning was to bl...
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