A state media report claims that Vice President Joice Mujuru has “denied that she is against media revelations on corrupt activities” despite the fact that the audio of her speech was loaded on audio sharing site SoundCloud.
The Herald newspaper claims that Mujuru “accused the media of twisting facts to suit their agenda, saying Government was working on a corporate governance framework to curb corruption in both the public and private sectors.”
The newspaper however did not provide her actual quotes and only paraphrased what she said while officially opening the Mashonaland Central provincial planning workshop in Mazowe.
It was reported Mujuru had castigated the exposure of corrupt activities in parastatals and related companies in the media, saying this might be the work of detractors bent on destroying Government and stall its programmes.
Mujuru, who was addressing the Zanu PF Mashonaland West provincial women’s conference in Chinhoyi on Saturday, said the graft cases should not be discussed in the media. She said the corruption cases were not the business of newspapers, saying the way the cases were being exposed raised eyebrows.
Mujuru accused people of wasting their time on useless issues and accused some Zanu-PF members of fighting from within to destroy Government programmes. However her condemnation of corruption was not given prominence.
“What we read in the newspapers about what is happening at PSMAS and other public enterprises is disturbing and should not be allowed,’ she said in a quote buried at the bottom of the Herald newspaper.
Its widely believed a faction of the party led by Emmerson Mnangagwa which lost heavily to Mujuru in key party provincial elections, is fighting to undermine the Vice President using the state media that is now controlled by Information Minister Jonathan Moyo, a key Mnangagwa faction strategist.
The VP however will have no one to blame but herself for making the unfortunate statements. The remarks have in some quarters reinforced long standing allegations that her family has accumulated obscene wealth on the back of massive corruption and looting.
