She fought alongside Robert Mugabe’s guerrillas for six years, joined his cabinet at the age of 24 and served as vice-president for ten years. Until she was dismissed 14 months ago, accused of witchcraft and treachery, Joice Mujuru was Zimbabwe’s second most powerful politician, seemingly destined to succeed her mentor.
Instead, the 92-year-old president is now grooming another woman — who happens to be his wife — for the top job, and Mrs Mujuru has set up an opposition party to thwart her. The battle to succeed the man who has ruled Zimbabwe for 35 years will, it seems, be an all-female affair.
Mrs Mujuru, 60, a big woman with a booming laugh and a strong handshake, believes that Grace Mugabe, 50, is unfit for higher office. “This lady is so immature. She entered the political arena just in 2014. You don’t inherit politics from your husband. I don’t think the people of Zimbabwe would be very happy,” she told The Times.
Observers say that Mrs Mujuru’s time as a freedom fighter against white-ruled Rhodesia guarantees her a large following, and she is clearly not short of political experience. The Zimbabwe People First party that she launched last week is expected to pose a stiff challenge to the ruling Zanu (PF).
Asked if Mrs Mugabe could win an election, she laughed dismissively and replied: “Comment reserved”.
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Although she served as the dictator’s deputy for a decade Mrs Mujuru has insisted that she is a democrat. She said that she had spoken out publicly and in Mr Mugabe’s cabinet against the repeated campaigns of violence against opponents.
She said that she now wanted to see the establishment of a truth and reconciliation commission into the country’s brutal past, mirroring South Africa’s efforts to deal with the legacy of apartheid.
“This is not an alien practice in our nation,” she said. “If someone’s cattle destroy someone else’s crops in the rural areas the elders of the village would call the quarrelling parties to find out what started the trouble. They might discover that it was not just cattle going into another’s field but it began many years ago when the one’s grandfather committed adultery with another’s daughter but refused to support his offspring.”
It was a metaphor for Zimbabwe’s troubled existence. “Now people are looking at animals destroying crops but not what started it.”
Mrs Mujuru lambasted the president’s constant condemnation of homosexuals, a bold move in Zimbabwe’s conservative society. “They are not disturbing us in any way. If they are there, leave them,” she said.
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Mr Mugabe said recently that he intended to rule until he was 100. He has been dismissive of the new opposition party, predicting in a television interview last week that Mrs Mujuru would “live in the wilderness, where little ants and other biting insects are destined to live”.
The retribution already being meted out against her followers suggests, however, that he is taking the challenge seriously. Mrs Mujuru said that one of her supporters’ homes was burnt down last Tuesday — a classic Mugabe tactic — but that she was not afraid. “If they arrest me they will be campaigning for me,” she said.