Mujuru feared for her life

EMBATTLED Vice President yesterday revealed why she skipped her party's important resolution-making meeting which ended over the past weekend saying she feared for her life after some hardliners within the faction-wriggled Zanu-PF threatened her with death.

Mujuru was speaking for the first time after the Congress following savage attacks by her boss President Mugabe who sensationally repeatedly spoke of Mujuru's botched coup plot.  

In her statement, Mujuru said the campaign eventually coalesced into direct threats on her life.

"Therefore, their strategy moved from being one of persistent denigration and defamation in the national State media and newspapers, to one of direct threats against my person and life," she said.

Mujuru added that her party agents were unlawfully hindered from submitting her nomination papers for the congress and she decided not to attend the indaba as she feared for her life.

"I decided to stay away from the inevitable public humiliation as was meted out to other unfortunate members of the party," she said.

"I made my fears known to the party leadership.

"It was important to maintain the dignity of the office of the vice-president even in the face of such unwarranted violence by a section of the party membership."

Mujuru denied being involved in any criminal activity as alleged, saying there were flimsy attempts to link her to the alleged criminal actions of people she associated with in what she described as "a well-orchestrated smear campaign".

She said she was grateful to God that she was still alive despite threats against her. The vice-president said Mugabe had been told a "pack of lies" about her especially that she was out to assassinate him.

"As a law abiding citizen of Zimbabwe, I abhor the very notion that an elected president or government of the day can be removed from office through wrongful or unlawful means," she said.

"The allegations that I, alone, or (together with various distinguished comrades) have sought to or attempted to remove His Excellency R G Mugabe from office are ridiculous."

The vice-president said Zanu-PF party had been infiltrated by a cabal of individuals out to destroy it from within and the fact that she questioned such developments had led to the assassination of her character in the State media.

"A vociferous attempt has been made to portray me as ‘a traitor', ‘murderer' and ‘sellout', yet not a single iota of evidence has been produced to give credence to the allegations," she said.

Mujuru dismissed the allegations of witchcraft levelled against her and described herself as a God-fearing person and could not have used witchcraft to advance her political career because political power was derived from the people.

She said she had an illustrious career in Zanu-PF and government and had carried out duties including campaigning for the ruling party in national elections, attending 43 campaign rallies all over Zimbabwe over a three–week period last year.

Mujuru said she did that at great personal expense, "happily losing 4kg in that period" and played a key role in the results of the 2013 elections.

The vice-president said it did not make sense that she would be accused of ineptitude only a few weeks before the party's congress when she had been vice-president for the last 10 years.

On allegations that she had consulted apostolic sects in her bid to wrest power from Mugabe, Mujuru said she had been invited to be patron of the Apostolic Christian Council of Zimbabwe, which represents at least 700 apostolic Christian churches in Zimbabwe, "as long ago as January 2011".

"This was with the full consent and blessing of His Excellency," she said.

"I have, since then, with the full knowledge of the head of State, attended numerous church gatherings, as patron and also as vice-president.

"There have never been any clandestine or unlawful gatherings that I have been a part of."