Mujuru still studying pension offer

FORMER Vice-President Joice Mujuru has not yet decided on whether she will accept or reject her pension and terminal benefits gazetted by President Robert Mugabe early this month.

The benefits were gazetted on August 7 under Statutory Instrument 86/2015 on Presidential Pension and Retirement Benefits.

"We are still studying the offer," Mujuru's close ally and former Zanu PF spokesperson Rugare Gumbo said.

"I cannot say whether she has accepted or declined it at this moment."

The pension package that Mujuru will get, if she accepts it, will include a domestic worker, a gardener, two drivers, a private secretary, a close security unit officer, two aides-de-camp (military) officers, the use of a Mercedes-Benz motor vehicle and a colour television set, as well as medical cover and air travel once a year.

Quizzed on whether Mujuru thought Mugabe was dangling a carrot with a view to weaken her resolve to venture into opposition politics, Gumbo said: "Could I request that you be patient a bit while we make a determination on the issue?

"Give us the benefit of doubt to deal with the matter in our own way before we make concrete conclusions."

Law professor and constitutional lawyer Lovemore Madhuku said the irony was that the Statutory Instrument was being personalised to Mujuru because she happened to be the only surviving former Vice-President.

"The Statutory Instrument is meant for all people who will serve as Vice-Presidents now and in the future," he said.

"We had such a provision for the President in the old Constitution, but now there is a section in the new Constitution that provides for a pension and other benefits for former VPs.