Mujuru’s allies booted in Zanu-PF purge

Zimbabwean Vice-President Joice Mujuru. File picture: Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi

Zimbabwean Vice-President Joice Mujuru. File picture: Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi

Published Nov 14, 2014

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Harare - The future is now uncertain for Zimbabwe’s vice-president, Joice Mujuru, as the Zanu-PF politburo purged the hard core of senior party members who support her ahead of the party’s elective congress early next month.

Many of her key supporters were suspended on Thursday or had their positions in the party frozen.

Zanu-PF spokesman and politburo member Rugare Gumbo, for example, was suspended from the party for five years while head of the war veterans committee Jabulani Sibanda was expelled.

Votes of no confidence – suspension – were also passed against half the Zanu-PF provincial chairs and seniors from the women’s and youth leagues.

Choosing his words carefully, party chairman Simon Khaya Moyo, who was the ambassador to South Africa for years, said he would take no questions beyond the announcement of measures adopted that stripped the party of most of those who most obviously supported Mujuru. This turned her into a “lame duck” vice-president, according to analyst Ibbo Mandaza.

“Zanu-PF has been transformed into Mugabe-PF. This is all about ensuring he stays in office till the end (that is, his death),” Mandaza said today.

“This is all about protecting the Mugabe family’s assets. Zanu-PF, as we knew it, died long ago. It is just a party for Mugabe. And it will have no legacy, as it doesn’t care about the people.”

Mandaza was a powerful Zanu-PF member until 2008, when he and others split from the party and supported a bid by former finance minister Simba Makoni to beat Mugabe in the presidential elections.

Mujuru’s late husband was accused by some of supporting Makoni in that poll which, with a split vote, delivered a first round victory to Movement for Democratic Change leader Morgan Tsvangirai.

Mujuru had enormous support in the party and beyond.

Gumbo was suspended, according to Friday’s Herald newspaper, for plotting Mugabe’s “ouster”.

Mandaza said the politburo meeting did not mean Mujuru’s rival in the succession, Justice Minister Emmerson Mnangagwa, was poised to succeed Mugabe. “This is about Mugabe, no one else.”

Mugabe’s wife, Grace, played a key role in bringing the politburo to its decisions yesterday after slagging off Mujuru at rallies last month. Mujuru has been vulnerable within the party since her husband, Solomon, died in a mysterious fire three years ago. - Independent Foreign Service

The Star

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