'Don't overrate Joice Mujuru'

People should not overestimate the influence of former Vice President Dr Joice Mujuru, who was kicked out of the revolutionary Zanu-PF party for planning to topple President Mugabe from power, a senior official has said.

Saviour Kasukuwere, the party's national political commissar, dismissed suggestions that some people who had won primaries and by-elections were Dr Mujuru's loyalists.

"I want to caution people from over-estimating Mujuru's influence. Zanu-PF and the President have more support than anybody else," said Kasukuwere, who is also Environment, Water and Climate Minister.

"There can never be any day where someone, and I am speaking right now, has more support, more following, than His Excellency the President.

"The candidates who have won the by-elections right now, Auxillia Mnangagwa and in Mt Darwin we have Barnwell Seremwe, these are strong party cadres in their own right who support the President, who support the party, who have been in the party for a long time and are tried and tested. So for one to wake up in the morning and say, 'I think that one is a Mujuru loyalist' is to stretch our imagination, at times, too far to think that Mujuru was the alpha and the omega of Zanu-PF. Never!"

Kasukuwere said the majority of Zanu-PF supported President Mugabe and his policies.

"Admittedly, some people may have been confused that maybe the President was going to retire and Mai Mujuru would take over, which was far from the truth.

"The President is in charge and of course there are some people who just follow willy-nilly without thinking. They get to a stage where they land themselves into trouble because perhaps they are not mature enough in politics to understand that you do not follow an individual who is aspiring, who thinks they are the ultimate deciders.

"Again we have cases of people who were intimidated by simply saying 'you got this post because so-and-so stood for you.'

"So there was this grand scheming behaviour which got some of our cadres into that thinking that there was a political process leading to the retirement of the President and so if they wanted to remain in politics or remain occupying powerful positions they should be seen behind so-and-so.

"Now we must distinguish those from those who were eagerly or who were keenly plotting to see the President out of the office using all sorts of manner and ways to try and achieve their objective from those who were basically followers. So the party continues to look at all these issues in a very clinical manner to ensure that those who were not spearheading anything are not made to pay a price for just being followers who did not know why they should have been doing that."

He said the party wanted to ensure that it remained strong, united and moving forward.

"Those with bad ideas must have those ideas corrected and this is one of the things that are done in a revolution. You must always sit to correct those with the wrong ideas and the wrong notions and ensure that they understand exactly what the party stands for," said Kasukuwere.