via State media attacks Mujuru – DailyNews Live 31 October 2014
HARARE – Zimbabwe’s state media accused Vice-President Joice Mujuru of extortion and abuse of office yesterday in what observers say is a stepped-up campaign to discredit her in a battle to succeed ageing President Robert Mugabe.
Mugabe, 90, and in power since independence from Britain in 1980, has not indicated a preferred political heir, but his advanced age and rumours of ill health have escalated succession fights in the ruling Zanu PF party.
The race has been shaken up in recent weeks by first lady Grace Mugabe, 49, who has emerged as a potential successor. She has launched withering attacks on Mujuru, accusing her of plotting to oust the president at a party congress in December.
Mujuru faced a new round of damaging allegations yesterday from the The Herald, widely seen as the voice of the government and powerful forces within Zanu PF.
It accused her of illegally receiving money from investment partners and using her political clout to squeeze them out of a business venture.
“Details of Vice President Joice Mujuru’s illicit business dealings have begun to emerge amid revelations she received, and signed for, thousands of dollars in illegal cash payments from Kenyan and Indian financiers who had invested in the Mujuru family-owned duty-free shops at the Harare International Airport,” the Herald said.
Citing what it said were documents in its possession and unnamed sources, the paper said Mujuru then “elbowed out the investors in a manner that bordered on extortion and abuse of office”.
Sylvester Nguni, the minister of state in Mujuru’s office, declined to comment, saying he had not read the Herald report. Mujuru herself has not responded to the attacks by Grace.
Zanu PF has no history of removing deputy presidents and all of Mugabe’s four past deputies died in office, making the criticism of Mujuru from within party ranks unprecedented.
Eldred Masunungure, a political science lecturer at the University of Zimbabwe, said the aim was to drain political support from Mujuru by turning her into a pariah ahead of the December party congress.
“The strategy is to degrade and destroy her. We are in the degrading phase, where they are attacking her personality and credibility,” Masunungure said.
Mujuru, a battle-hardened veteran of the 1970s liberation war with a nom de guerre that means “Spill Blood”, won Mugabe’s support for the vice president post in 2004.
Her family is known to own businesses including a diamond mine in southern Zimbabwe, which shut down two years ago due to financial problems, and shares in ferrochrome producer ZimAlloys, which also closed down and is technically insolvent. The family also owns at least two farms and the duty-free shops.
Grace’s sudden rise into the top leadership of Zanu PF has been welcomed by some officials who say she will end factional fights in the party and have urged her to seek higher office, mostly likely the vice presidency.
But in private, some senior Zanu PF members are critical, accusing Mugabe of trying to establish a ruling “Mugabe dynasty”. Grace has particularly said Mujuru is unhappy with the first lady’s rise in the ruling party.
The current political infighting comes against a backdrop of slowing economic growth and high unemployment.
COMMENTS
It is certainly Mugabe’s strategy to be succeeded by his wife Grace.
Send a thief to catch a thief . Now that stealing, corruption and back door deals is a way of life in Zanu PF, who is checking on who??
Poor Joice has to be te first one I guess.
Zimbabweans I don’t know what’s wrong with us,hatiregei kuurayirwa nyika takatarira,Grace Mugabe ndiani.Kusiri kufa varume ndekupi.Zimbabwe rise up.
Grace is not a potential successor for Mugabe. You don’t read the game well.
Mazoona corruption yake nhasi sei. nezuro maimusimudza muchiti madzimai, nhasi mavakuti ashata. muchamama mese, asi kuti muchitivhara kumeso. illuminati elect (first degree) is yet to come and wipe you all out of office.
“State media attacks Mujuru”? Who would have thought it? Do I smell disGrace? Surely not! Zim State Media is Independent! And Zim is the most wonderful place on earth to raise your kids – if you’re ZANU-PF, rich, gutless and corrupt. Please RGM, can we just get it over and done with? Just die and make the world a much better place with one less arsehole wrecking nations?
For obscure reasons, Mujuru must go. Some reports cite recent Chinese pressure on Mugabe which prefers Mnangagwa. It’s unfortunate her camp does not seem to have competent strategists such as you find among the Weevils, who have decided to strike now long before the next elections so any damage can be repaired in time. Their major risk is the splitting of the party and strengthening the opposition. If that happens they will have to contend with rigging the elections as usual, and Zimbabwe will continue in true form.
What is coming up regarding Mujuru’s corrupt personality is quite enlightening to those Zimboz who mighty wrongfully mistook her for a saint. This is even more worthwhile if the revelations are read together with Mujuru’s open defense of corrupt zanu pf functionaries who have literally killed all parastatals in the country.
We remember she openly argued that those who were exposing corruption were zanu pf enemies who wanted to destroy zanu pf from within. Our take, is she was telling us that zanu pf and corruption were synonymous – and according to her assertion, one could not be separated from the other. So, it is not possible to fight corruption without fighting zanu pf itself. In essence, she was admitting that all zanu pf is corrupt to the bone. The question is: ‘Is this the kind of leader that Zimboz want’. It’s one thing to be a witch or anything evil. But its another thing to openly boast about and defend it. To me this makes Mujuru stand out among even other more corrupt zanu pf leaders, who wisely maintained their silence on the evil issue, or better still even pretend to be against it.
Kwete munhu asina ganda kumeso zvakadero. Unomira pamberi pavanhu uchiti “pamberi nekuuraya nyika; pasi neunoti kuuraya nyika yedu kwaipa”. Ndizvo zvakaitwa namai Mujuru vagutisa kuChinhoyi – hanzi pamberi necorruption, pasi nevari kuitsoropodza, vavengi vezanu pf. Kutaura here komukadzi mukuru nhayi vanhu vezimbabwe. Nenguva isipi yake corruption yobvujunyugwa pachena. Saka hazvisi pachena here kuti ndosaka mai ava vasingadi munhu anoti ‘pasi necorruption’.