Zimbabwe's ruling party has suspended two senior officials and expelled another as tensions over President Robert Mugabe's succession intensify ahead of a key congress next month, media reported Friday.

The state-owned Herald newspaper said ZANU-PF politburo suspended spokesman Rugare Gumbo and lawmaker Enoch Porusingazi for five years, while war veterans leader Jabulani Sibanda was expelled.

A Malawian diplomat who once described Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe as an 'idiot' will no longer be posted to Harare, Foreign Minister George Chaponda said Tuesday.

Thoko Banda turned down the posting as high commissioner on Monday, but Chaponda told state television that President Peter Mutharika already had "plans to drop Thoko Banda from the diplomatic mission".

A Malawian diplomat who once reportedly described Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe as an "idiot" said Monday he had turned down a posting as his country's top envoy to Harare.

"I am sure there are other Malawians more amenable to serving at that particular post at this particular time," Thoko Banda said in a statement seen by Agence France Presse.

Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe Thursday defended his wife's nomination to lead the powerful women's wing of the ruling ZANU-PF, as the campaign to succeed him intensifies ahead of a crucial party congress.

"Why are some people so much opposed to it?" said Mugabe to hundreds of supporters who had gathered at the party's headquarters to back him and his wife.

Global media watchdog, the Committee for the Protection of Journalists, on Friday urged Zimbabwe to guarantee the safety of journalists after a reporter was beaten up and detained by police.

Tapiwa Zivira, a journalist with the privately-owned NewsDay newspaper was attacked days after President Robert Mugabe's wife Grace accused reporters at independent newspapers of writing lies about her.

Zimbabwe’s human rights agency, created five years ago to curb rights violations, on Tuesday said its operations had been hamstrung by a severe cash crunch.

The Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission has received less than 10 percent of its budgetary needs, its chief Elasto Mugwadi said.

President Robert Mugabe's increasingly powerful wife Grace has threatened Zimbabwe's vice president with expulsion from the ruling party, throwing a fierce succession battle into the open.

But the first lady said she is not angling for Vice-President and one-time Mugabe heir apparent Joice Mujuru's post although she used the war "war" in a rally.

Zimbabwean's veteran president Robert Mugabe voiced his support for Russia on Tuesday, describing Western sanctions against Moscow as "illegal".

"If sanctions are to apply they must be approved by the U.N. and those that are being imposed on the Russian Federation have not," the 90-year-old said after meeting visiting foreign minister Sergei Lavrov.

Zimbabwe riot police beat and briefly detained more than a dozen opposition protesters on Wednesday, at a demonstration over high unemployment, an AFP correspondent witnessed.

Police armed with batons descended on around 100 members of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change marching in the capital Harare, days after its party leader advocated a wave of nationwide demonstrations.

Zimbabwean opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai warned on Friday his party may organize nationwide protests against President Robert Mugabe's government over its failure to stem the country economic slowdown.

Tsvangirai said Mugabe's government had failed since last year's election to address economic woes afflicting Zimbabwe including massive unemployment and a liquidity crunch.