Source: Tsvangirai owes me, says Mujuru – DailyNews Live
Tendai Kamhungira 21 March 2017
HARARE – Former Vice President Joice Mujuru says opposition leader Morgan
Tsvangirai owes her and her late revered husband, Solomon, a huge debt of
gratitude for helping to engineer President Robert Mugabe’s stunning
defeat by the MDC president in the hotly-disputed 2008 polls.
“Anyone who has a sound mind and a bit of memory would know that
Tsvangirai won the 2008 elections partly because of the role that Zanu PF
members aligned to Mujuru played to ensure their supporters voted for Zanu
PF MPs and ward councillors, but voted Tsvangirai for president.
“If that is not true, then what is Bhora Musango?” NPP spokesperson
Jealousy Mawarire said in a controversial statement yesterday which both
Zanu PF and MDC supporters may find highly objectionable.
“If one of the sins that Mugabe accuses Mujuru and the late General
Solomon Mujuru was engineering his defeat in 2008 through Bhora Musango,
and Mugabe came out publicly on this while addressing a group of Zaoga
church members at Zegu (Zimbabwe Ezekiel Guti University) in Mazowe last
year, does it make sense to allege Mujuru was involved in rigging
Tsvangirai (sic) who had benefitted from Bhora Musango?” Mawarire added.
Tsvangirai and the MDC beat Mugabe and the ruling Zanu PF hands down in
the historic, but hotly-disputed 2008 polls, whose results were withheld
for a suspiciously long six weeks by stunned authorities, amid widespread
allegations of ballot fraud and tampering.
Solomon, the revered liberation struggle icon and Zimbabwe’s first black
military commander, was subsequently accused by Mugabe and other Zanu PF
bigwigs, together with his wife, of having engineered Mugabe’s thumping
defeat by Tsvangirai.
In the ensuing sham presidential run-off which authorities claimed was
needed to determine the winner, Zanu PF apparatchiks engaged in a
murderous orgy of violence in which hundreds of Tsvangirai’s supporters
were killed in cold blood, forcing the former prime minister in the
inclusive government to withdraw from the discredited race altogether,
days before polling.
Mugabe went on to stand in an embarrassing and widely-condemned one-man
race in which he declared himself the winner.
However, Sadc and the rest of the international community would have none
of it, forcing the nonagenarian to share power with Tsvangirai for five
years, to prevent the country from imploding completely.
Mawarire’s statement yesterday came as Mujuru has come under withering
attack from many quarters, following her recent interviews in the United
Kingdom where she denied having taken part in human violations during her
time in Zanu PF.
But Mawarire said claims that Mujuru had participated in rigging elections
against Tsvangirai were devoid of any truth.
“There are many accusations that have been made against Mujuru, but the
underlying factor is that either those that make the allegations do not
know her, or they are just malicious Zanu PF functionaries who have made
it their vocation trying to soil her otherwise impeccable reputation.
“To understand Mujuru, it is imperative to enter into her political world
and schemata and appreciate her understanding while in Zanu PF, that the
dictatorial system of governance in the country was hinged on one man.
“Therefore to dislodge the system easily then, one had to work out a plan
to remove Mugabe through existent party structures at congress,” Mawarire
said.
Mujuru has been working behind the scenes with Tsvangirai and other
leaders of smaller parties towards the formation of the mooted grand
opposition alliance, which has been on the cards for a while.
However, question marks have been raised over her role and influence in
the proposed coalition following her nasty public fallout with Zimbabwe
People First (ZPF) elders Rugare Gumbo and Didymus Mutasa.
This nasty divorce led her to form NPP – barely a year after she joined
opposition politics.
The former vice president was hounded out of both the government and Zanu
PF together with Mutasa and Gumbo on untested allegations of plotting to
oust and kill Mugabe.
Recently, Mutasa cast further doubts on Mujuru’s pedigree to lead the
mooted opposition coalition when he praised Tsvangirai, saying he had
persevered against all odds in his push for a more democratic Zimbabwe.
“For me Tsvangirai is the natural leader of the coalition because of who
he is … What the National Electoral Reform Agenda (Nera) is today stands
for what Tsvangirai and the MDC built. The rest of us are latecomers in
this game,” Mutasa told the Daily News.
“As a party we cannot accept a situation where Mujuru leads the coalition
having proved her lack of capacity with ZPF, although she is welcome to be
part of the coalition because we need everyone,” he added.
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