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Mujuru described as a 'tsunami' set to change the face of Zimbabwean politics
02 Mar 2016 at 12:07hrs | Views
A close aide of former Vice President Joice Mujuru - who formally presented herself to the nation yesterday as the leader of the new political outfit, the Zimbabwe People First (ZPF) - described her as a tsunami that was set to change the face of Zimbabwean politics for good.
The aide - who was among hundreds of Mujuru's exuberant supporters who congregated at Meikles Hotel in Harare as the former VP hosted her inaugural media conference as an opposition figure - also proclaimed excitedly that "(President Robert) Mugabe and Zanu-PF are finished".
Speaking at the packed Press event, Mujuru herself did not disappoint, throwing the gauntlet at her erstwhile Zanu-PF comrades and declaring boldly that she was ready to face Mugabe in the eagerly-anticipated 2018 national elections.
And in a savage back-handed swipe at Mugabe and First Lady Grace Mugabe, she said she was neither "a witch nor an assassin" - making it clear all the charges she had been slapped with while she was still in Zanu-PF had been contrived.
The seemingly relaxed Mujuru also said the hard and trying times that Zimbabweans were currently living under called for "the truth to correct our past wrongs" - adding that some of the areas that needed correction included foreign policy, investment laws and the respect for the rule of law in the country.
"We are living under an unjust system. There is selective application of the law, one for the poor and the powerless, one for the rich and the powerful, one for opposition party supporters and one for ruling party supporters," she said.
Drawing parallels between racist Rhodesian rule under Ian Smith and that of Zanu-PF under Mugabe since 1980, Mujuru quoted the late liberation war icon, General Josiah Magama Tongogara, who famously said "we are not fighting against the white man, we are fighting against a system".
She said pointedly that 36 years after Zimbabwe's independence, the same unjust system that Zimbabweans had fought against during the colonial days "remains a noose around our necks, as that system has stolen any hope for the people of Zimbabwe".
Describing yesterday as a historic day, Mujuru laid into Zanu-PF's "smash and grab" policies such as its controversial Indigenisation and fast-track land reforms.
She promptly marketed ZPF as "a viable, home-grown and inclusive political party" that was willing to engage other like-minded persons to dislodge Zanu-PF from power in a free and fair election.
She said her party would among other things, review the Indigenisation and also conduct a comprehensive land audit to flush out multiple farm ownership - necessary moves that her former Zanu-PF comrades have refused to take.
"Zimbabwe is broken. In dark times such as these, we look to the government of the day to serve as builders of a better country for all ... We know we will not get this from the government of the day.
"It has broken the social contract that should exist with the Zimbabwe people," Mujuru said, further exposing Zanu-PF's failure to implement the country's new Constitution.
She said People First would contest all future elections to "remove the unjust system (Zanu-PF) once and for all through economic, political and social reform".
While Mugabe, whom she refused to talk about during her media conference, has shown the West the middle finger, Mujuru announced that she would, once elected, drive the country towards re-joining the global community.
"We shall rejoin the Commonwealth," she said emphatically of the group of nations that Mugabe moved out of when pressed to effect political reforms in Zimbabwe a decade ago.
And in a further thinly-veiled attack on Zanu-PF, Mujuru said "unlike others who had vested power in one person", ZPF is not a "one-simple woman party. What we are, is a party with one People Centre of Power".
"I must also speak for myself. I have known only one political party since I joined the liberation struggle. I am now outside that party. I am neither an assassin nor a witch ...
"If there is any crime that I am guilty of, it is the belief in the periodic constitutional and democratic renewal of leadership from within, and this is the same position I am now promoting within Zimbabwe People First," Mujuru said.
Asked to clarify her party's position on a grand coalition with other opposition parties, Mujuru - whose husband Solomon died in a mysterious inferno in 2011 - said the last time that she met main opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai was in 2013.
However, she expressed her willingness to form an opposition alliance that would take on Zanu-PF in 2018.
Mujuru, whose nom de guerre was Teurai Ropa (Spill Blood), said her party would work to restore some of the tenets that led many to join the liberation struggle to fight and dislodge the Rhodesian government from power.
"We fought for the right to self-determination, the right to freedom, the right to vote under the principle of one man one vote, and not one man voting for us all," she said.
Asked about the role that the army had to play in Zimbabwe's politics, Mujuru - whose husband was the country's first black commander - said war veterans, the army, police, air force and intelligence services must defend the Constitution of Zimbabwe.
Betraying the anxiety of Mugabe's ruling party around Mujuru's official entry into politics, ahead of the eagerly anticipated 2018 national elections, Zanu-PF apparatchiks ratcheted up their withering attacks on her and her party yesterday.
Some of those within Zanu-PF who attacked her viciously pointed out - with neither a sense of shame or irony - to the fact that she had been part of a "corrupt, dictatorial and murderous regime" for many decades.
The aide - who was among hundreds of Mujuru's exuberant supporters who congregated at Meikles Hotel in Harare as the former VP hosted her inaugural media conference as an opposition figure - also proclaimed excitedly that "(President Robert) Mugabe and Zanu-PF are finished".
Speaking at the packed Press event, Mujuru herself did not disappoint, throwing the gauntlet at her erstwhile Zanu-PF comrades and declaring boldly that she was ready to face Mugabe in the eagerly-anticipated 2018 national elections.
And in a savage back-handed swipe at Mugabe and First Lady Grace Mugabe, she said she was neither "a witch nor an assassin" - making it clear all the charges she had been slapped with while she was still in Zanu-PF had been contrived.
The seemingly relaxed Mujuru also said the hard and trying times that Zimbabweans were currently living under called for "the truth to correct our past wrongs" - adding that some of the areas that needed correction included foreign policy, investment laws and the respect for the rule of law in the country.
"We are living under an unjust system. There is selective application of the law, one for the poor and the powerless, one for the rich and the powerful, one for opposition party supporters and one for ruling party supporters," she said.
Drawing parallels between racist Rhodesian rule under Ian Smith and that of Zanu-PF under Mugabe since 1980, Mujuru quoted the late liberation war icon, General Josiah Magama Tongogara, who famously said "we are not fighting against the white man, we are fighting against a system".
She said pointedly that 36 years after Zimbabwe's independence, the same unjust system that Zimbabweans had fought against during the colonial days "remains a noose around our necks, as that system has stolen any hope for the people of Zimbabwe".
Describing yesterday as a historic day, Mujuru laid into Zanu-PF's "smash and grab" policies such as its controversial Indigenisation and fast-track land reforms.
She promptly marketed ZPF as "a viable, home-grown and inclusive political party" that was willing to engage other like-minded persons to dislodge Zanu-PF from power in a free and fair election.
She said her party would among other things, review the Indigenisation and also conduct a comprehensive land audit to flush out multiple farm ownership - necessary moves that her former Zanu-PF comrades have refused to take.
"Zimbabwe is broken. In dark times such as these, we look to the government of the day to serve as builders of a better country for all ... We know we will not get this from the government of the day.
"It has broken the social contract that should exist with the Zimbabwe people," Mujuru said, further exposing Zanu-PF's failure to implement the country's new Constitution.
She said People First would contest all future elections to "remove the unjust system (Zanu-PF) once and for all through economic, political and social reform".
While Mugabe, whom she refused to talk about during her media conference, has shown the West the middle finger, Mujuru announced that she would, once elected, drive the country towards re-joining the global community.
"We shall rejoin the Commonwealth," she said emphatically of the group of nations that Mugabe moved out of when pressed to effect political reforms in Zimbabwe a decade ago.
And in a further thinly-veiled attack on Zanu-PF, Mujuru said "unlike others who had vested power in one person", ZPF is not a "one-simple woman party. What we are, is a party with one People Centre of Power".
"I must also speak for myself. I have known only one political party since I joined the liberation struggle. I am now outside that party. I am neither an assassin nor a witch ...
"If there is any crime that I am guilty of, it is the belief in the periodic constitutional and democratic renewal of leadership from within, and this is the same position I am now promoting within Zimbabwe People First," Mujuru said.
Asked to clarify her party's position on a grand coalition with other opposition parties, Mujuru - whose husband Solomon died in a mysterious inferno in 2011 - said the last time that she met main opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai was in 2013.
However, she expressed her willingness to form an opposition alliance that would take on Zanu-PF in 2018.
Mujuru, whose nom de guerre was Teurai Ropa (Spill Blood), said her party would work to restore some of the tenets that led many to join the liberation struggle to fight and dislodge the Rhodesian government from power.
"We fought for the right to self-determination, the right to freedom, the right to vote under the principle of one man one vote, and not one man voting for us all," she said.
Asked about the role that the army had to play in Zimbabwe's politics, Mujuru - whose husband was the country's first black commander - said war veterans, the army, police, air force and intelligence services must defend the Constitution of Zimbabwe.
Betraying the anxiety of Mugabe's ruling party around Mujuru's official entry into politics, ahead of the eagerly anticipated 2018 national elections, Zanu-PF apparatchiks ratcheted up their withering attacks on her and her party yesterday.
Some of those within Zanu-PF who attacked her viciously pointed out - with neither a sense of shame or irony - to the fact that she had been part of a "corrupt, dictatorial and murderous regime" for many decades.
Source - dailynews
