The events that  have unfolded in Zanupf for the  last months have taken the country by storm leading to Vice President Joice Mujuru today heading home in both ‘sighs and tears’ as she serves her last 24hours in the highest office next only to Robert Mugabe. Zanu Pf seems to be on a self destructive mode, the case of snake eating its own tail and body.The current winner is not clear between President Mugabe and the Mnangagwa camp, however the biggest loser in the contest is clearly the incumbent Vice president Joice Mujuru.
Vice president Mujuru until recently was the leading candidate to succeed President Mugabe. Mujuru  is the most senior person in Zanupf structures after the president, and has been the vice president for the last ten years.It seemed all  along that,  she had  somehow outmaneuvered her arch rival in the race of succession, with nine of ten provinces being under her loyalists.The turn of events, however   may mean Mujuru has blown the golden opportunity or to put in politely she had let the opportunity to slip off her hands. She dismally   failed to play her cards well in time.The English language has an interesting adage, that talks about striking when the iron is hot.However it seems Mujuru failed to read and  interpret the temperatures and the iron has now cooled and solidified.
Mujuru is a decorated 2nd Chimurenga fighter. She is one of the most famous fighters of that era,to  cap her achievements, until recently she was believed to have downed a Rhodesian helicopter with a machine gun.The helicopter incident has been  vehemently  rubbished by other freedom fighters ,like Ambassador Christopher Mutsvangwa the new  Warveterans leader. For today,there is no need to dwell on the authenticity of the helicopter incident, Her uncontested profile so far, is that she fought against colonialism.
At independence in 1980, she became the youngest cabinet minister at the age of 25 years, an impressive record indeed.She has been in cabinet for the last 34 years, along side Robert Mugabe,  Emmerson  Munangagwa and Sydney Sekeramayi. Among the portfolios she had held is the Post and Telecommunications, where she is remembered well for  stifling development in that sector  by denying Econet Wireless a licence along side Robert Mugabe.
She steadily climbed  the political ladder under the tutelage of her  late husband, the first black commander of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces, the late General Solomon Mujuru, another decorated 2nd Chimurenga hero. Her husband seemed not to be interested in direct power, he was just sort of a king maker running things to a certain extent  from behind scenes. Naturally as the king maker, he enjoyed enormous privileges that are not dreamt by the average citizen.
As a result of those privileges, he earned a notorious reputation of accumulating a sizable estate in the most unscrupulous means among others extortion and racketeering.These stated means were revealed by the then Zimplats Chairman David Brown,  in a Wikileaks cable,the  then  retired General  approached Zimplats, promising to protect the company from indigenisation in exchange of stake in the company.God knows how many businesses were victimised like this, these unscrupulous means seem to have been adopted by Vice President also,this is  according to the erratic and loose tongued Grace Mugabe, a fellow fake Doctorate holder. Many other corruption deals were also reported in 2011, where it was understood the Mujurus were smuggling gold  worth about $35 million per month out of the country with their Spanish son in law playing the front.
Mujuru’s career soared in 2004, when She was promoted by Robert Mugabe to the position of vice President ahead of the then party favourite Emmerson Munangagwa.The move was one of Mugabe’s grandstanding tactics of clipping wings of over ambitious lieutenants .Hence to Mugabe it was better to be surrounded by weak deputies, devoid of ambitions to secure his long cherished dream of becoming a permanent resident of the statehouse. Mujuru then was not the most senior person even among women, it is obviously that her husband played a role in securing the position. She unwittingly revealed this, when She accused youths of harassing her, because her husband is no more. While we sympathise with her for losing her husband under a mysterious fire.Politics is not for the faint hearted especially in Africa. No one should be treated with kids gloves because they  are widows or orphans, those who want such treatment should leave politics.Leadership is the ability to rise beyond these challenges.
Mujuru’s effectiveness as a leader was yet to be seen, she was just among others passengers in the Bob driven  train.Her first watershed test came sometime in the beginning of this year when her loyalist in parastals were exposed for stripping and plundering these state enterprises.The publishing of these extravagant salaries earned by CEOS of bleeding parastals left the public  enraged.The salaries were way higher than what the average worker can never  earn in a lifetime, half millions etc.
Mujuru scored her own goal when she went on a crusade against the state media for publishing  such abuse of public money.She went on a rampage jibes obviously aimed at the minister of information who was using the media, accusing him of trying to destroy Zanupf from within. To the public it was obvious that Mujuru did not care about plundering of state resources, She preferred impunity over justice. The theft of public funds by her lieutenants does not matter, it should be just swept under the carpet.Thus Mujuru proved that she was not a reformist, she was  worse than Mugabe in terms of nurturing  corruption. Mugabe at least  is known for empty barks  against the rampant corrupt to lull public anger, like Godwills Masimbarembwa and a few caught off guard.
In this case it could have been nobler for Mujuru to remain silent than blessing grand theft.
It cannot be dismissed that Mujuru could see where the hatchet was pointed to.The Ngwena strategy seem to have been first to isolate the victim, take the fish out of the water and make it powerless. Mujuru fell for the trap and thus disqualified herself, she proved that integrity an transparency is not high on her agenda. While it is public knowledge, that Zanupf is a breeding ground for corruption, it is fatal for an aspiring president to show such indifference to the vice.
The next opportunity presented itself for Mujuru to assert her leadership and yet again, she failed to seize the opportunity. When  Grace Mugabe was unleashed under the guise of  meet the people rallies across the country, she viciously went on tantrums against Mujuru for being incompetent and corrupt first in parables then finally in open language.These charges are true, but none is Zanupf is clean from these two charges.When Mujuru saw that her house was on fire, she kept quite, believing that silence was golden.This rule is not always true especially in politics. Mujuru went on to organise a graduation party for her controversial  PHD like that of the first lady. During the party she praised President Mugabe and credited the Phd to him, she refered him to as a father.Thus Mujuru reaffirmed her unquestionable allegiance to Mugabe at a time where she was supposed to confront Mugabe to bridle his wife.She proved that she is just a puppet without rigorous ambition. Mujuru chose to charm  an angry snake instead of hitting it or running away.This did not stop Grace, it seemed Mujururu’s action was well ready as someone who could not strike back, Grace eventually called for her  outright resignation.
The next wave saw votes of no confidence being passed against all perceived Mujuru sympathisers. Once again Mujuru did not see it fit to defend her victimised allies, her foot soldiers fell by the way side without any public assurance.This was clearly the greatest sign of lack of strategy and being spineless. she just sat down  and watched as her foot soldiers were being purged. Provincial leaders and  structures that were aligned  to her,were all  mercilessly purged without proper procedures even by Zanupf  ambiguous standards.One fails to understand how Mujuru intended to remain in power without structures backing her.Once again She proved her indecisiveness  by not acting or uttering anything.
In a heavily mercenarised organisations like Zanupf, where many are just there for the benefits , it is obvious that betrayals and opportunism is rampant. Most people will just wait and see were the current is flowing to , before jumping in that direction.In actual fact, people in such organisation have no preferred candidate except the winning one.The patronage systems concentrates rewards and punishment in the hands of those in power.Thus failure to be good books with those in power may mean loss of privileges and  reprisals. As Magareth  Dongo rightly noted the levels of cowardice in the party, when she  called Zanupf leaders Mugabe’s wives. Soon the remaining loyalist saw the warning shots and gave up, switched their allegiances . A good example is  one youth leader started calling the first family alphas and omega of the revolution.What a pathetic young person!
Mujuru was further to embarrass herself by submitting  her name for the Vice presidency at the congress only to be told that, the position would not be contested.The president will appoint the Vice president and the national chairman.This sealed Mujuru’s fate, as it was not enough her own district refused to nominate her for central committee, meaning that after congress should whoever is the president not appoint her, she could become ordinary Zanupf card caring member. When Mujuru saw that things were falling apart she should have been bold and declared her candidacy for president of the party. Whether rules or whatever were changes she could have appealed to more people, even opposition supporters.This was a golden opportunity for her, bearing in mind that the opposition is in its lowest ebb.The strategy of her opponents work,ed she have been stripped of all power form structures and sympathy of the ordinary man who often saw her as a better devil.
Thus Mujuru might be still retained as a harmless ceremonial  vice president, and would never be a threat to president.Hence Mujuru’s chances of becoming the next president are ranging from nill to rare.Her spinelessness, indecisiveness, callow and lack of strategy has proven that she is no leadership material .
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Mlungisi Dube