Mujuru people first hit ground running

Former Vice President Joice Mujuru and her Zimbabwe People First team, who officially announced their entry into opposition politics last week, are building up a head of steam as they prepare for the country's eagerly anticipated 2018 national elections.

Yesterday, the widow of the late liberation struggle icon, General Solomon Mujuru, was interviewed on popular South African talk radio station, SAfm, where she was grilled for an hour about her vision for Zimbabwe and her time in Zanu-PF and government, as she takes her message of a new dawn for the country to Diasporans and other audiences beyond Zimbabwe's borders.
 
Mujuru, yesterday declared that her party was open to Western funding, confirming allegations before her sacking that she had sacrificed her soul on the altar of regime change agents.

Speaking in an interview with South African Broadcasting Corporation's SAfm radio station, Mujuru also revealed that they were willing to "make friends" with anyone in the world.

In the interview which started on the false premise that Mujuru left Zanu-PF when in actual fact she and members of her cabal were expelled from the revolutionary party over allegations of plotting to topple President Robert Mugabe, Mujuru said they had approached and been approached by some people around the world to back them.

Asked who was funding her party Mujuru said: "We're a wholly Zimbabwean party. We're going to look after ourselves, we've Zimbabweans within the country and we've Zimbabweans who are working outside the country so we'll look after ourselves."

Pressed if they were getting any funding from Western agencies, Mujuru said: "Not as yet, if we're going to get anybody who will come with a gesture then why not, we'll accept."

Mujuru said her party was going to make friends with all those that are ready to make friends with them.

Asked who in particular, the former VP said: "World over. A lot of people have approached us and we've approached a lot of people."

In a bid to justify her machinations ahead of the 6th Zanu-PF national People's Congress in 2014, Mujuru said:

"When someone tells you that there is one centre of power which is not what we fought for, we fought for majority, we knew it was you and I, we are very important in what we do in the formation and development of the country and it had been long forgotten.

" It was all me, me,me me, my party and my people and once you hear someone talking about my party and my people, you begin to wonder whether it's a private thing or whether he is talking in terms of being the leader of the country or you would then have to conclude when you see that a lot of those he fought with or a lot of those he was with in the liberation movement are now beginning to be victimised, then you will begin to know that all that you fought for is now going down the drain. (Sic)"

Mujuru, in the interview punctuated by stutters and incoherent statements, went on to allege that the President initially silently and subtly "clung" to power until 2013 to 2014 when everything came to the fore.

"I can't say which year exactly but it can't be just in 2014 but it was being done silently, it was being done in a subtle manner and so on but all of a sudden in 2013-2014, it reared its ugly head," she said.

"Some of these things, you know, when they are said and as a party you begin to dispel them by showing people that no, no, no, the policy of the party is that we go for elections, the policy of the party is that we use the majority decisions and so on and you begin to believe what the party has always been telling people, teaching the people or have been campaigning about. Only in 2014 when they started talking about one centre of power, that's when it was real to some of us. (Sic)"

Ironically, Mujuru was part of respective party conferences and congresses that since independence endorsed President Mugabe as the First Secretary and sole candidate representing Zanu PF in the Presidential elections.

She also claimed to have initiated projects around the country, one of them being the Bulawayo Kraal in Binga which was recently rescued from near collapse by First Lady Grace Mugabe.

Under Mujuru's watch, the project almost folded with critical equipment to start the irrigation project being stolen and vandalised.