Mujuru bombshell

Former vice-president Joice Mujuru says her husband, the late General Solomon Mujuru, had nothing to do with the Gukurahundi massacres although he was the country's chief military commander at the time.

In fact, she said, the general had to be called back to Zimbabwe from Pakistan where he was attending a military course when the massacres started in the Matabeleland and Midlands regions in the 80s.

Responding to questions posed to her by The Standard last week, Mujuru - who was expelled from Zanu-PF two years ago and has since formed her own party, Zimbabwe People First - said her late husband was popular with both Zanla and Zipra forces and was the only one who could be listened to by both armies. She said Mujuru had worked with Zipra before joining Zanla and as such, had acquaintances in both liberation war armies. That is how he was appointed the overall military commander soon after the war of independence, she said.

"Solomon was a people's person. He was their soldier, their commander, their hero. He worked hard to bring together Zipra and Zanla during the liberation struggle. Because he had worked with Zipra before joining Zanla, he had acquaintances in both liberation war armies; hence it was easy for him to bring them together.

"It is also for the same reason that he had to be called back from Pakistan where he was attending a military course when Gukurahundi started. He had to be called back to try to find ways of ending the fighting that had started in his absence," she said.

The ex-VP said she knew about Zanu-PF's electoral shenanigans which the party employed to fraudulently win elections and that she now had strategies to counter them. She would, however, not say what strategies her party had devised to foil the alleged electoral theft by Zanu-PF, saying they were their secrets.

"Sharing with you publicly our plans, our strategy would be the greatest betrayal I would have done to our people. Suffice to say, we know the shenanigans and we have put in place plans to counter them to ensure our supporters' votes are not put to waste," she said.