Harare - Joice Mujuru, former national vice president, now leader of a small political party opposed to the ruling Zanu-PF, was stoned at a rally in a high-density Harare suburb on Thursday.
Mujuru, 62, who was in former president Robert Mugabe’s first cabinet in 1980, was kicked from office and out of Zanu-PF three years ago.
Joice Mujuru was devastated at her expulsion from the party she supported all her adult life. She eventually formed her own political party which went through various start up problems and is now called the People’s Rainbow Coalition. Many expect she will be a candidate in presidential elections later this year.
According to reports from Harare, Joice Mujuru was stoned while addressing a rally in the Glen Norah township, south of central Harare and she was saved by some supporters and had brief medical treatment.
According to several commentators on social media on Thusday who sent photos of Mujuru after medical treatment, an unnamed Zanu-PF person attacked her. Zanu-PF became a divided party in the last few years between new president Emmerson Mnangagwa’s supporters and those who backed Grace Mugabe.
Mnangagwa was against Joice Mujuru when she was appointed vice president ahead of him in 2004.
After a soft coup d’etat, Mnangagwa became Zimbabwe’s second president last November after Robert Mugabe quit office to avoid impeachment.