Zimbabwe's vice president dies

  1. Posted on Thursday 6 August 2009 - 08:34
    Sam Banda Junior
    Image of Sam Banda Junior
    Sam Banda Junior, AfricaNews reporter in Blantyre, Malawi
    Zimbabwe's vice president Joseph Msika has passed away on Wednesday morning. Media reports in the southern African country said the veteran leader who was also ZANU-PF party deputy president and second in command to President Robert Mugabe, died at the age of 85.
    Joseph Msika
    The reports further said Msika was on life support before his death which is expected to create a political fight over his positions.

    The late Msika was in critical condition recently and that he had been hospitalized twice in a fortnight. He became ill while attending a regional summit in June 2009, reportedly due to a stroke, and was treated at a South African hospital before his death.

    Mugabe is said to have announced during a meeting the passing out of his vice president who was expected to be the likely successor of Mugabe. "He (Mugabe) announced to the members of the politburo the passing on of Comrade Msika this morning. He said some of his organs had stopped functioning,” said a Reuters report.

    Msika is a veteran politician who served as vice president of Zimbabwe from 1999 to 2009. He was originally a member of Joshua Nkomo’s Zimbabwe African People’s Union (ZAPU) which is said to have later merged with Mugabe’s Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU) to become ZANU-PF.

    Msika was once arrested by the Police in 1964 and later following Nkomo's death, he succeeded him as Vice President on 23 December 1999.

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