Mnangagwa attack: 3 hospitalised

via Mnangagwa attack: 3 hospitalised 11/12/2014

POLICE said Thursday that the number of people hospitalised following an alleged attempt on vice president Emmerson Mnangagwa’s life has risen to three with the VP saying he was unperturbed by the incident.

President Robert Mugabe revealed Wednesday that there had been an attempt on Mnangagwa’s life on the day the justice minister was to be confirmed as first vice president following the sacking of Joice Mujuru.

According to Mugabe, a substance thought to have been cyanide, was sprayed in Mnangagwa’s office at the Zanu PF headquarters in Harare Tuesday night in the hope he would inhale it on entering the room Wednesday morning.

But it was his secretary who entered the office first. She is now said to be fighting for her life at Harare’s private West End Hospital.

National police spokesperson Charity Charamba said three people had now been hospitalised following the attempted poisoning.

“The number of people who have been hospitalised is now three — two women and a man,” said Charamba.

“The man has since been discharged but the two ladies are still in hospital.”

Investigations were continuing with the police, according to Charamba, “working on a forensic analysis of the crime scene.”

Meanwhile, state media identified the secretary who inhaled the substance as Catherine Magaya, adding that the other two individuals were the vice president’s driver, Dzingai Mutasa, and a member of the central intelligence organisation.

Meanwhile, Mnangagwa said he was unfazed by the incident, adding that death threats had become part of his life.

“Threats to my life are normal. I have had these throughout my 52 years of political life; so it has become part of my life,” he told the US-based VOA Studio 7 radio station.