Expelled former Zanu-PF spokesman Rugare Gumbo has vowed that former Vice President Joice Mujuru, who was expelled from the party by the Politburo last week, will contest the 2018 presidential elections representing what he calls the original Zanu-PF.
Mrs. Mujuru might end up facing President Robert Mugabe, who has already been declared the Zanu-PF candidate by the party unopposed.
Mr. Mugabe will be 94 years old at that time. The Zanu-PF Politburo chaired by Vice President Phelekezela Mphoko expelled Mrs. Mujuru accusing her, and her late husband, liberation war icon General Solomon Mujuru, of plotting to assassinate President Mugabe.
Mrs. Mujuru is also accused of corruption and other vices. She has dismissed all these allegations.
She released a statement through her colleagues, which read in part, “On the eve of the holiest day on the Christian calendar, the Politburo chose to dwell on its relentless, unsubstantiated, malicious and hateful campaign against the person of Amai Mujuru.
“As if this was not inhuman enough, the much-decorated national hero, the late General Mujuru, who passed on in yet unclear circumstances, was not spared as well. It is un-Zimbabwean to desecrate our dearly departed. Hunhui ihwohwo/Ubuntu bani lobu? (what kind of humanity is this?)
"One wonders if the Politburo ever spared any moment to enquire on the disappearance or lack of news on the whereabouts of young Itai Dzamara and what his young family is going through. My prayers go to ALL those who are hurting in silence.
“Given the prevailing economic hardships, the looming food crisis (tutsawona) and the declining inflows to the fiscus, the politburo’s silence on these matters is deafening.”
Gumbo noted that they are working with like-minded people to challenge the Zanu-PF hegemony.
Acting president Emmerson Mnangagwa on Thursday dismissed rumors that Zanu PF will split into two as false. Mnangagwa told party supporters at Mucheke Stadium in Masvingo that Mrs. Mujuru and her allies were wasting their time trying to take the party to court.
Efforts to get a comment from Zanu-PF spokesman Simon Khaya Moyo or Mnangagwa were futile as their mobile phones went unanswered. But Politburo member Munyaradzi Paul Mangwana reiterated Mnangagwa’s assertion that Mrs. Mujuru’s allies are misguided.