Zimbabwe VP says he was poisoned

ZIMBABWE vice-president Emmerson Mnangagwa said late on Thursday he had been hospitalised in South Africa in August because he had been poisoned.

His comments come amid an escalating confrontation in the country during the fight to succeed 93-year-old President Robert Mugabe.

Mnangagwa, a former intelligence chief, 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, but his main political rival, First Lady Grace Mugabe, swiftly denied having anything to do with it.

Mnangagwa was airlifted to Johannesburg after falling ill in August.

At a news conference on Thursday he said doctors concluded poisoning was to blame for his illness, and not inadvertent food poisoning.

“The medical doctors who attended to me ruled out food poisoning but confirmed that indeed poisoning had occurred and investigations were in progress,” Mnangagwa said. He provided no further details or proof.

Mnangagwa, 75, became vice-president in 2014, putting him at the front of the pack to succeed Mugabe.

However, over the last 18 months he has met fierce opposition from Grace Mugabe and a faction of the ruling party backing her.

After his hospitalisation, Zimbabwean media said Mnangagwa suffered food poisoning after eating ice cream from a dairy company owned by Mugabe and his wife, which the Mugabes both denied. — Reuters