'Solomon Mujuru wanted Sekeramayi as VP'

NATIONAL People's Party (NPP) leader Joice Mujuru has claimed her late husband Solomon Mujuru wanted Defence minister Sydney Sekeramayi to be appointed Vice-President ahead of her, contrary to long-held views that the former army general masterminded her meteoric rise in Zanu-PF and government.

Instead, Mujuru said, it was First Lady Grace Mugabe who orchestrated her rise to become the country's first female Vice-President in 2004 for 10 years before the benefactor authored her downfall.

In a leaked one-on-one interview with South Africa-based editorialist Peta Thornycroft conducted sometime last year, Mujuru also revealed that her late husband saw things differently from her on many occasions.

"It was a surprise to him that I had to go for some of the things that he never expected," she said.

"And to tell you the truth, Solomon and I had different thinking on different things that we were following in life.

"And people think what I was doing was all coming from Solomon. Now that Solomon is gone, do you still think that Solomon is influencing what I do?"

The former Vice-President said she remembered very well when Grace went to Victoria Falls talking about the ascendancy of a woman, but Mujuru was convinced her late husband had nothing to do with the issue.

"I don't think it was him (Solomon) who had spoken to Grace. I don't think it was him. Mind you, the women had already started discussing with other women in the region that there was a way for women's progression and development," she said.

"Women were beginning to say we have also contributed in the struggle and why is it that women are always getting the last thing in life.

"Yes, I know Solomon, to tell you the truth, he had another person in his mind who was not me. Do you know my husband used to think that Sekeramayi would be . . . That was what Solomon had in his mind."

Mujuru said Solomon was actually furious with her in 2004 when she launched her bid to be Vice-President because he preferred Sekeramayi.

Mujuru's remarks seem to back what Grace said during her rallies in 2014, where she described the NPP leader as ungrateful because she was plotting against Mugabe after she (Grace) influenced the veteran leader to pick her for the Vice-Presidency, a post which the First Lady did not think she deserved.

In 2004, Vice-President Emmerson Mnangagwa had secured the backing of six provinces, but was dealt a blow by Mugabe, who picked Mujuru as his preferred choice. The fallout over the jostling for the Vice-Presidency claimed the scalps of several provincial chairpersons after the foiled Tsholotsho Declaration that sought Mnangagwa's ascendancy.

The casualties of the Dinyane meeting to prop up Mnangagwa included now Higher Education minister Jonathan Moyo, who has now turned to be the Vice-President's most vocal critic.

Last week, Moyo threw the cat among the pigeons when he threw Sekeramayi's name into the succession race that has been dominated by brawls between the Team Lacoste and G40 factions. While recorded late last year, Mujuru's remarks on Sekeramayi have gained more significance following Moyo's assertions last week.

Sekeramayi, who has been described as a dark horse in the race to take over from Mugabe, has, however, refused to the dragged into succession wars.