By Fungayi Mukosera
The meagre support received by Joice Mujuru at her inaugural rally at Stanley Square, Bulawayo over the weekend was adequate to show the deep distrust people have for the former Vice President.
The only prospect that most analysts noted were not of her to lead a strong force against our nonagenarian president but of forming a coalition that has a potential to put up a fight in the 2018 elections.
There are quite good reasons why her entrance into politics will only end in sympathetic news headlines that will not convert into actual people on the ground. Firstly there is a simple truth that Joice Mujuru is a product of a corrupt Zanu Pf system which she defended mightily when she was still Vice President.
We will all recall her speaking with a crooked tone of wisdom to women in Chinhoyi early 2014 defending corrupt government officials and parastatal heads. In fact Mujuru was well known as Dr 10% in Zanu Pf for using her dirty monies to gain shareholding in multiple companies in the country.
Like many of the ex-Zanu Pf officials, Mujuru was sacked as the Vice President and expelled from her party not because of their enlightened view of the appalling socio-political situation in Zimbabwe but because she wanted to spread her tentacles wider in the corrupt system.
Someone put it simple to me that, the big difference between Mujuru and someone like Lumumba is that Lumumba dug deeper whilst in Zanu PF, Mujuru dug deeper as an expelled member. It is important to note that when Grace Mugabe started her attacks on Mujuru in September 2014, the guilty verdict on her head was of being a faction leader; she did not lead any calls to address the needs of ordinary Zimbabweans.
The second reason behind the sympathetic voices focusing on Mujuru is that she is still viewed as an unfairly treated widow of a revered General Solomon Mujuru. The pity is however starting so look as though her persecuted state is convertible to a best fit opposition to Mugabe.
Her sparing mention and push for justice for her murdered husband would leave one wondering whether she hasn’t already enjoyed underhand restitution from her former party. I wonder if it would be considered an unlikely coincidence that her silence over the assassination of her husband is conveniently preceded by the silence of the state to prosecute her for treason and corruption.
While it is also short-term convenience for the former Vice President to claim that it was a very ‘small clique’ that was behind past electoral rigging, it might as well reveal the fundamental burden of flaws that she brings to the opposition politics of Zimbabwe. What the ordinary person in Zimbabwe is looking for is a strong voice of reason with a feasible potential to dislodge Mugabe and his regime in the 2018 elections.
Unfortunately Mujuru will not be that voice especially after seeing her lying openly by inferring herself as a ‘Jack and Jill’ person in Mugabe’s presidency. The media’s sympathetic view of her as bound by the State Secrets Act will however not do her any favour but only expose her as part of the problem and the brutal remnant force behind the plethora of problems bedevilling the Zimbabwe at the moment.
The respect that Mujuru was supposed to enjoy as a war veteran woman who made a mark in the corridors of power in the new Zimbabwe will continue to be watered down because when the call of duty to stand for the people came, she did not come forward.
The paltry initial support that she enjoys now will soon wither down as the fascination dies down with the realisation that she is not the ‘born-again’ child like she wants us to believe but rather part of the reason why we are in anguish.
