Mujuru- Congrats Mugabe, life goes on

Former Vice President Joice Mujuru says she has accepted her recent dismissal by President Robert Mugabe and wishes him, his wife Grace, the new vice presidents Emmerson Mnangagwa and Phelekezela Mphoko, and all the new Cabinet appointees well.

 

Speaking in an interview yesterday, Mujuru said she had "absolutely nothing" against those who had been chosen by Mugabe to replace her and lead the country.

She also dispelled unfounded speculation that she was heading for top US college, Harvard University, to further her studies, saying emphatically that she was staying put in Zimbabwe.

A vice president for 10 years in Mugabe's government and for many years tipped to become Zimbabwe's first woman president and only the country's second post-independence leader, Mujuru said she was grateful that she had had her time in office and that life had to go on.

Asked whether she did not harbour some resentment about the fact that she had first been humiliated and then sacked, she told the Daily News that she harboured no ill-feelings towards anyone.

 

She in fact, surprisingly, went on to congratulate Mugabe, his wife Grace who led the vicious attacks on her leading to her dismissal, Mnangagwa, Mphoko and all the new Cabinet appointees.

 

Mujuru was fired last week at the instigation of Grace who had threatened to deal with the former VP herself if her nonagenarian husband did not dismiss her.

Mugabe, who has openly admitted that Grace tells him what to do, duly fired.

 

Mujuru subsequently, claiming that the popular liberation war heroine had plotted to oust and  assassinate him.

 

The sensational allegations have not only not been proven to date, but Mujuru and all those accused of plotting to assassinate the 90-year-old leader have not been charged either.

 

"I am congratulating the president for the successful (Zanu PF) congress (that was held in Harare early this month)," Mujuru, who snubbed the three-day gathering after receiving death threats said.

 

"I also congratulate the First Lady on being appointed the Women's League secretary. My congratulatory message also goes to all those in the (party's) central committee and the politburo," she added.

 

Asked about her future plans, Mujuru said it was too early to talk about them, although her life "will not stop" because she was no longer in Cabinet.

 

"Life goes on," she said.