Mujuru raps indigenisation greed

Politics
ACTING President Joice Mujuru has castigated greedy politicians and leaders who are grabbing everything for themselves under the guise of indigenisation.

ACTING President Joice Mujuru has castigated greedy politicians and leaders who are grabbing everything for themselves under the guise of indigenisation.

BY PATRICE MAKOVA

Speaking at the burial of the late Zimbabwe’s ambassador to the Democratic Republic of Congo, John Mayowe at the national shrine in Harare yesterday, Mujuru said the country’s natural resources should benefit all people and not just a few individuals.

“Let me state that empowerment and indigenisation are not mutually exclusive,” she said. “We should be practical and flexible to emphasise one or the other without compromising the thrust of the noble ideological position.”

Mujuru, who was acting in the absence of President Robert Mugabe who was in Equatorial Guinea for a regional summit said Zimbabweans must be guided by the philosophy of Ubuntu and unite to build rather than destroy the country.

The programme to transfer majority shareholding in foreign-owned businesses is currently embroiled in controversy.

Indigenisation minister Saviour Kasukuwere, is reportedly at loggerheads with Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe governor, Gideon Gono over the high consultancy fees paid to a company contracted to oversee the empowerment deals. The two MDCs have also complained that only Zanu PF-aligned people were benefitting from indigenisation.

Mujuru told the hundreds of people who were at the Heroes’ Acre that Zimbabweans should demonstrate maturity by conducting the March 16 constitutional referendum and subsequent harmonised elections in a peaceful environment.

She said Zimbabweans should take heed of the call by the political leadership for violence-free campaigning to avoid undue criticism and scrutiny from the outside world.

“No parent wants to see his or her children fight each other, let alone kill or maim each other,” said the acting president.

She accused unnamed Western countries of interferring in Zimbabwe’s political processes by demanding to be monitors in the forthcoming elections.

“Why should we be monitored by other countries outside Sadc when we are a sovereign state?” queried Mujuru. “Some countries, particularly those which have imposed illegal sanctions on us, wish to pursue their interests at our expense by imposing themselves on our national election processes, so as to influence the outcome in their favour.”

She revealed that Zanu PF was in the process of establishing an “ideological” school which has been on the drawing board for a long time now.

“Without a school of ideology, it becomes difficult to remain focused on the direction in which the people want to go,” said Mujuru. “It is a good recipe for disaster as the enemy will take advantage of this vacuum to introduce their ideological thinking that is in line with furthering their own interests.”

She said Mayowe, a veteran diplomat, had just completed writing a book that narrated his experiences during the war and his relationship with the late Zanla commander, Josiah Magama Tongogara, with a view of leaving behind a correct legacy of history.

Mujuru said there were “yawning” gaps in most of the available publications on the history of the country.

Some Zanu PF officials present at the burial said they were not sure whether Mayowe’s book would finally reveal how Tongogara died. They said Mujuru’s call for the writing of the true history of the country could open a can of worms; including revealing the true circumstances under which her own husband retired General Solomon Mujuru met his death in August 2011.

A number of inconsistences have been highlighted on how Tongogara and Mujuru met their fates.

The official version was that Tongogara died in a car accident on December 26 1979, a few days after the signing of the Lancaster House agreement.

Tongogara’s children recently said they doubted this version, calling for the exhumation of his body.

On the other hand, a coroner ruled that Mujuru died of carbonation in an inferno at his Beatrice farmhouse, but the family has dismissed this version.

Mayowe’s burial was attended by mostly members of the uniformed forces. A Zanu PF official attributed the low attendance to the absence of President Mugabe and failure to bus people to the venue.