Joice Mujuru’s problems started in 2008

via Joice Mujuru’s problems started in 2008 – DailyNews Live 5 November 2014 by Guthrie Munyuki

HARARE – Vice President Joice Mujuru could be on the ropes but her problems did not start in the run up to the Zanu PF congress to be held next month in Harare.

Also, the entrance of First Lady Grace Mugabe into the party’s mainstream politics did not trigger the problems that are threatening to bring to an end Mujuru’s remarkable career.

What is happening now as Zanu PF gears for its watershed congress is part of a script which started in 2008 when MDC president Morgan Tsvangirai defeated President Robert Mugabe in the March 29, 2008 elections.

Tsvangirai won 47,9 percent of that presidential poll but agonisingly fell short of clinching the 50 percent-plus 1 vote needed to outrightly condemn Mugabe to the political dustbin.

Mugabe polled 43,2 percent while Simba Makoni got 8,31 percent and Langton Towungana garnered 0,58 percent.

Mugabe’s defeat to Tsvangirai and the emergence of Makoni and subsequent formation of Mavambo Kusile Dawn (MKD) could have marked the beginning of an end for Joice Mujuru.
– Joice’s late husband Solomon was part of the team that persuaded Makoni to run for president against Mugabe.

– Solomon Mujuru allegedly acted in “connivance” with Zanu PF heavyweights to engineer a Mugabe defeat in Mashonaland East province where the decorated war hero was touted as a “Godfather.”

– Mugabe indeed performed poorly against Makoni and Tsvangirai in Mashonaland East compared to other provinces including Matabeleland where he had maintained a core support base.

Mugabe himself was so perplexed by the outcome of the vote in Mashonaland East that he ordered a recount thinking the vote had been rigged.

He wondered why Zanu PF MPs in Mashonaland East gained more votes against the opposition only for him to record a low tally when he would have been expected to garner the same votes as his MPs.

Mugabe’s defeat to Tsvangirai in general elections was seen as sabotage.  Solomon Mujuru was viewed as the architect of the fielding of both Makoni and engineering the Bhora Musango/ Ibola Egan’eni strategy.

There was a belief that the 8,31 percent of the vote that went to Makoni was chipped off Mugabe’s support and was instrumental in him failing to win outrightly against Tsvangirai in the first round of voting.

This suspicion, coupled with Joice’s silence on her alleged husband’s acts of sabotage on Mugabe and by extension Zanu PF — surely were a harbinger for what is now obtaining.

It must not be forgotten that Emmerson Mnangagwa, Constantine Chiwenga and Augustine Chihuri persuaded Mugabe to fight Tsvangirai in the run-off poll when other Zanu PF bigwigs recoiled after the nonagenarian leader’s crushing defeat.

The trio, with shadowy strategists, ensured that Mugabe would defeat Tsvangirai in the run-off in which the MDC leader pulled out citing massive violence against his supporters.

Hundreds of MDC and Zanu PF supporters were either killed or maimed in the run up to the run-off.

The retribution exercise was seen as punishing Mujuru and the Mash East province for Bhora Musango/Ibola Egan’eni and propping up Makoni.

The infamous short sleeve or long sleeve gory stories in which limbs were allegedly chopped off, stemmed from this bloodletting exercise.

It would then be foolhardy to say the emergence of Grace and her explosive provincial rallies started trouble for Joice. No!

In fact, when Mugabe and Zanu PF predicated their 2013 election on the slogan Bhora Mugedhi/Ibola Egedini, it was a warning to the architects of the Bhora Musango/Ebola Egan’eni to mend their ways by backing Mugabe and Zanu PF in that election.

This message was not isolated.

All that is happening around Joice Mujuru is part of the 2008 script that started after Mugabe’s loss and Makoni’s challenge to the Zimbabwean leader.

If there are transgressions that Joice is alleged to have made, then they are now being fortuitously used to bring to an end to the script at the congress.

Joice could be suffering for Solomon’s deeds. But as a wife, it is common cause that somehow she knew what her husband was up to.

Being Zanu PF deputy leader and vice president makes it worse, at least in the eyes of her rivals.

The same applies to Mugabe whom critics have said is behind Grace’s vitriolic attacks on Mujuru because as a husband, there is no way he can fold hands and let the first lady act on her own.

It is this reasoning which makes Joice “guilty” of Solomon’s deeds which nearly cost Mugabe his job.

So Joice’s problems started in 2008 and sadly there is no Solomon to absolve her!