Zimbabwe: Ousted vice president forms political party
(MENAFN- The Journal Of Turkish Weekly) A former Zimbabwean vice president once accused of plotting to assassinate the country’s ruler -- and of being a witch -- has launched a new political party.
Joyce Mujuru’s Zimbabwe People First was registered on Feb. 12 and launched Tuesday.
The grouping "is now a new opposition political party in Zimbabwe" Mujuru told a news conference.
Scores of former ruling-party members and government ministers plus hordes of former opposition Movement for Democratic Change activists were in attendance.
Mujuru was unceremoniously booted out of the ruling Zanu-PF party led by President Robert Mugabe in Dec. 2014 amid accusations of plotting to assassinate the 92-year-old leader as well as being a witch.
Since her expulsion there had been hype that she would form a new opposition party although Mujuru herself kept silent.
Mujuru who joined the country’s liberation struggle as a young girl and has never been in any political party apart from Zanu-PF appealed for support despite ambivalence among ordinary Zimbabweans.
"Let me address a certain level of skepticism which is bound to be directed at Zimbabwe People First by some stakeholders. You were in Zanu-PF for many years why then should we believe that you would transform this country?
"I must speak for myself. I have only one political party since I joined the liberation struggle. I am now outside that party I am neither an assassin nor a witch and this is now there for all to see. I am not a pretender; that is why you never heard me encourage or promote hate speech" Mujuru said.
During a briefing that was attended by church leaders civic society activists business figures and politicians Mujuru pledged to fight for change.
Mujuru accused Zanu-PF of deviating from Zimbabwe’s liberation-struggle values and of having embraced "an unjust system that remains a noose around our necks as that system has stolen any hope for the people of Zimbabwe".
She quoted revered liberation figure General Josiah Magama Tongogara who once said: "We are not fighting against the white man. We are fighting a system and it is the system that is unjust."
However Mujuru dismissed rumors that her party could be merging with another opposition group led by Morgan Tsvangirai saying she has yet to meet the former premier.
By John Cassim
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