Officials said that Mugabe sacked Mujuru, 59, todayafter weeks of accusations that she had led a “treacherous cabal” to try to unseat him.
The sacked officials received their dismissal letters on Monday night, citing two government sources it said declined to be named as they were not authorised to speak to the media.
Mujuru blamed “a well-orchestrated smear campaign and gross abuse of state apparatus” that led to the loss of her ruling party post and shook Zimbabwean politics.
Mujuru, who once looked likely to succeed Mugabe – in power for 34 years – has been accused of plotting to assassinate the 90-year-old and removed from the ruling ZANU-PF party’s central committee.
She said she was being victimised after exposing infiltrators conspiring to destroy the party, which has ruled the country since independence in 1980.
“I have become the fly in the web of lies whose final objective is the destruction of ZANU-PF and what it stands for and ultimately the present government,” Mujuru said in a statement.
“A vociferous attempt has been made to portray me as ‘a traitor’, ‘murderer’ and ‘sellout’, yet no iota of evidence has been produced to give credence to the allegations.”
ZANU-PF held an elective congress last week which endorsed Mugabe as president and his wife Grace as head of the women’s wing.
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