Mujuru under fire

National People's Party (NPP) leader Dr Joice Mujuru has come under fire for repudiating the objectives and gains of the liberation struggle by announcing that she would repeal the Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Act and the land reform programme, if voted into power.

She made the revelations in an interview on the British Broadcasting Corporation programme, HardTalk, that was aired yesterday.

On compensating white former farmers, she said: "(There will be) fair compensation, there is law to that. We are for constitutionalism. The Constitution has to be followed, property rights have to be respected."

Dr Mujuru drew brickbats from Zanu-PF and political analysts who said her utterances were "obstructive and hostile" to the well-being of Zimbabweans.

Zanu-PF Politburo member and Lands and Rural Resettlement Minister Douglas Mombeshora said the land reform programme was final and irreversible.

Mujuru has admitted to literally lying when she denied she had no knowledge of government's Gukurahundi atrocities in the early years of independence.

The opposition leader also indicated that she will reverse all adverse Zanu-PF economic policies, including the Indigenization Act, but denied looting diamonds when she was President Robert Mugabe's number two.

Mujuru, in several interviews previously, has claimed Mugabe had clandestinely had a crack "Zezuru-only" brigade trained by North Koreans behind the back of members of his Cabinet.

The campaign by the elite unit reportedly left over 20 000 civilians dead under the guise of hunting down a handful of armed dissidents.