Joice Mujuru, former Zimbabwean Vice President, has apologised to the country, for her role in President Robert Mugabe’s government.
Her allies see the move as a step towards challenging him for power.
Mujuru worked with Mugabe during the 1970s bush war and after independence and was until December seen as the leading candidate to succeed him. Mugabe in 2014 accused Mujuru of plotting to unseat him from office, a charge she denied. She lost her positions in government and the ruling ZANU-PF party.
Mujuru on Wednesday in Harare issued a public statement, taking blame for ZANU-PF’s failure to deliver on promises to Zimbabweans.
She also called her dismissal inevitable, because her vision diverged from that of Mugabe and the ZANU-PF leadership.
“For my own role in this failure, I am truly sorry and I apologise to my fellow Zimbabweans. It is a time in our history for contrition and reflection, for cleansing,’’ she said.
Mujuru in April accused ZANU-PF of losing focus on the economy which was slowing sharply.
Zimbabwe holds its next presidential vote in 2018 and ZANU-PF has chosen Mugabe, who will be 94 then, as its candidate.
Meanwhile, Didymus Mutasa, former Minister of State, Security, and ZANU-PF Secretary-General, who was expelled from the government and party together with Mujuru, said the former vice president would run for the top office. He said Mujuru, 60, was being publicly encouraged by allies to form a political party.
“She has gone beyond thinking about it. She will contest and I am confident she will be the first female president of Zimbabwe,” he said.
Eldred Masungure, a political science lecturer at the University of Zimbabwe, called Mujuru’s move ‘political repentance’.
He said Mujuru wanted to regenerate her political career but she needed first to disown skeletons, which he said were many in the ZANU-PF cupboard. (Reuters/NAN)
No comments:
Post a Comment