HARARE – Nothing has changed since former President Robert Mugabe was ousted and the whole system must go for any change to be fully realised, says former VP Joice Mujuru.
The National People’s Party and People (NPP)’s Rainbow Coalition leader said this in an interview with New Zimbabwe at her Chisipite house in Harare.
She said the NPP’s slogan ‘Ngaende Ngaende’ (Mugabe Must Go) was not aimed at Robert Mugabe only but at the entire regime.
“But the whole regime and its system, they must all go; nothing has changed politically, economically and even on dealing with issues of corruption,” she said.
Mujuru also commented on the opposition coalition talks.
She said, “Despite spending so much time on coalition talks, we agreed on how to take the country forward economically, foreign policies and international relations.”
“But we did not agree on issues of top to bottom approach, the use of MDC-T logo and presidential candidate because MDC-T negotiators said it had to be Tsvangirai or no deal.”
She added, “Their argument was with 17 years in opposition, they are the oldest opposition party in the country hence their president must lead the coalition.”
“But while we were still trying to find each other we were shocked to hear the announcement of the MDC Alliance and we also formed People’s Rainbow Coalition.”
The former vice president also said the past year (2017) was a difficult period for most ordinary Zimbabweans as Mugabe’s regime spent most of its energy on the succession issues with no attention paid to the economy which was on the down fall.
Mujuru said one has to look at the time, money and energy that was spent on presidential interface youth rallies across the country and the “value” they brought to people and even those within the ruling party to notice the discrepancy.
She said under Mugabe’s government companies continued to shut down due to a number of factors one of them being that the political leadership prioritised the succession issue ahead of all other issues.
“While companies were shutting down and people turning to vending, the same regime made it difficult for them to trade, which led to cat and mouse game between the vendors and the police as people tried to earn an honest living,” said Mujuru.
“Look at how the vendors were treated, look at how women with small children were treated after being caught trading, like criminals.”
She added, “Banks queues worsened, and even the introduction of Bond notes worsened the situation and fuelled the black market and we took them to court and lost.”
“We also did the same with the introduction of SI64 which fuelled corruption as trading licenses were handed only to friends and relatives within Zanu PF,” said Mujuru.
She added, “What shocked us with these judgements was, were the presiding Judges over these cases living within the same community with others; but it was clear that those were political judgements.”
“Look at the number of unemployed graduates who are roaming the streets.”
