'The days I worked under Mugabe were like jail time,' claims Mujuru

Former Vice President Joice Mujuru says despite having been harassed by President Robert Mugabe and his hangers-on, she holds no hard feelings and will not revenge in the event that she wins the 2018 elections.

Addressing her Zimbabwe People First (ZPF) supporters in Mugabe's home province of Mashonaland West yesterday, the former VP said the days she worked under Mugabe were like jail time, as she was not allowed to run her own projects.

Mujuru, who was expelled from Zanu-PF in 2014 on charges of plotting to assassinate Mugabe, is gunning for the presidency and has so far held provincial rallies in Bulawayo, Harare and Marondera as well as Chinhoyi as she drums up support for her party.

"They think that we are going to revenge but no we have many things to do for the good of Zimbabwe.

"Let us show Mugabe that we have now lost respect for him. Vanhu ava vanenge vava kupenga nhasi vagara politburo vadzinga munhu mangwana vodzosa (these people seem to have gone mad, they expel a person today and bring him back tomorrow) while the country is burning.

"We are worried because some people are now being rewarded for attacking war vets.

"Ukashanda nababa vakaita seivavo ijere pacharo (If you work with that man it is like you are in prison)," she told hundreds of her supporters.

On Thursday last week, a former Zanu-PF youth leader Godfrey Tsenangamu revealed that Mugabe was the author of the downfall of Mujuru as he personally coached them to attack her towards the party's congress in 2014.

"God is now at work, Tsenengamu exposed what they did to expel us," said Mujuru as she warmed up to the damascene moments of former Zanu-PF hardliners.

Mujuru, a veteran of the liberation struggle, has also come under attack from a section of former freedom fighters who accused her of not having championed their cause while still in government.

Turning to war veterans in Zanu-PF who were instrumental in causing her expulsion, Mujuru said it is now becoming crystal clear that Mugabe wants to get rid of all former freedom fighters.

"When I was still the VP, I wasn't the patron of war veterans some say ndanga ndavarasa (I had abandoned them) they came with their problems to Mugabe but he was doing nothing.

"We didn't know that he was targeting to expel all the war veterans like what he is currently doing," said Mujuru.

Her rally in Chinhoyi took place after a High Court application cleared it after police had earlier refused to sanction the gathering.