Mashonaland Central dares Mujuru

THE ruling Zanu-PF party in Mashonaland Central province has dared former Vice President Joice Mujuru who has formed her own party, Zimbabwe People First, to come and test her popularity in her former home.

Politicians and ordinary people in the province said Mujuru had done little to develop her home area and was only lucky to be previously elected because of her association with Zanu-PF.

Now that she has formed her own party, the province is ready to show its displeasure with her past misleadership.

"It surprises us that she wants to lead the country yet she failed to develop a small place like Mt Darwin West," said Barnwell Seremwe who succeeded Mujuru in Mt Darwin West Constituency.

"For over 30 years she couldn't uplift the area even when she was Vice President and if you look here there are no clinics and roads in her name. She should have led by example but she failed and there are a number of examples to point to her failure.

"The projects she initiated failed for example Dotito Irrigation Scheme where she gave two tractors but ended up taking one to her farm and the same happened at Chibuli irrigation scheme where she donated two tractors but later took one again. On the proceeds of the schemes she would sell but only give villagers a bottle of cooking oil in return.

"Worst of all she stopped the construction of Ndoda Road midway and diverted the equipment," he charged.

Seremwe said Mujuru was a selfish individual and the province was long fed up with her.

"All the votes she got in this constituency were courtesy of the party not her power as an individual," he said

Provincial chairman Dickson Mafios said Mujuru abused the reverence that the people of Mashonaland Central showed her in abstaining from contesting her position in primary elections.

"We resolved not to let anyone contest her because she was a senior member of the party and we actually did the donkey work for her and she hopped from one constituency to another from Bindura to Muzarabani to Mt Darwin yet you can't point to a single success and where she started projects and they took off she would embezzle the money and claim that donors had pulled out,: she said.

He said Mujuru had introduced the culture and legacy of factionalism in the province as she would impose her cronies.

"She wanted to destroy the party and her own party will never amount to anything as it is also composed of crooks who were chased from the ruling party who are now seeking political relevance," said Mafios.

Women in die province are not giving Mujuru a chance, either.

Several women interviewed by our Harare Bureau said the former Vice President did not use her position to uplift other women or to be sensitive to the needs of girls.

"She made a lot of promises but delivered little and the best she did was sinking a borehole at her homestead where we draw water and nothing else," said a woman from Tabex village where the Mujuru homestead is located.

Veronica Mukombe, a war veteran and provincial political commissar in the ruling party's women's league, said Mujuru had failed the province because she was "fake" since the days of the liberation struggle.

"We're not afraid of her," said Mukombe.

"She can't do anything on her own as she is given to the easy life since the days of the war. In Mozambique she was at the rear and into making babies and she never downed that chopper as she claims. I was section commander and operated in Mutoko, Goronga, Sidewalk and Area C and I know what I'm talking about. All she did after she was made leader of the women's league at Chai Chai was stay at the rear while we went to the front and she brought four children from the war to show for it"

Mujuru was expelled from the ruling party in 2014 for spearheading a plot to unconstitutionally unseat President Mugabe.

A fortnight ago she registered her party, PF, with the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission and went on to hold her first press conference as leader of PF at Harare hotel last week.