The Sunday News
The political dynamics associated with an election are typically a function of the interplay between political leaders and voters, as well as endogenous (having an internal cause or origin) and exogenous (relating to or developing from external factors) factors that impact the perceptions and goals of the electorate…Political dynamics depend largely on interactions between political leaders and the people they represent (Asmeret Bier et al, 2010).
The discourse of political dynamics therefore suggests there is nothing cast in stone in the world of politics, and thus, for former Vice President Dr Joice Mujuru to claim that she was at some point a “natural successor” to President Mugabe is a mere fallacy. For the opposition leader, who now fronts for a grouping going by the name National People’s Party (NPP) after changing from ZimPF after a nasty fall out with fellow founding members, to claim she was the “heiress apparent” to the President shows a serious lack of understanding of the world of political gymnastics and goes further to confirm that she is naïve and not fit to rule this country.
In fact, it gives credence to allegations that she faced while still in Zanu- PF, that she had set up parallel structures while busy plotting to unconstitutionally take over from President Mugabe, something which led to her dismissal from the ruling party in 2014, together with a coterie of hangers on.
The leader of the NPP made the claims during a presentation at the London School of Economics in the United Kingdom last week. She told the gathering that ahead of her expulsion it had become “apparent” that she was a “clear successor” to President Mugabe as the “nation had fully endorsed my candidature”.
Her paper was titled: Women Leaders on the Global Stage: Lessons for Africa. The presentation was part of the University’s commemoration of the UN International Women’s Day.
“When it became apparent that I was the clear successor to President Robert Mugabe, men seemed not ready for that although the nation had fully endorsed my candidature….What is sad in most of these cases of persecution and abuse of women is that men find willing accomplices in some of our own fellow women.”
However, ironically, Dr Mujuru’s former ally, Margaret Dongo at ZimPF, accused Mujuru of being anti-women, saying she was not ready to advance women’s cause after she had fired Dongo together with several other leaders who included Didymus Mutasa and Rugare Gumbo.
Dr Mujuru also had her claims dismissed by war veterans and political analysts, who said in fact, she was never popularly elected to any position, as she was a mere beneficiary of President Mugabe’s benevolence and Zanu-PF’s 2004 constitutional amendments to have a woman as one of the Vice Presidents.
Those who spoke to The Herald last week said Dr Mujuru was so inept during her tenure as Vice President and to therefore think she was going to be the country’s First Citizen was a wild dream by “a naïve and desperate politician without grasp of national politics.”
War Veteran leader and Manicaland provincial Minister of State Cde Mandi Chimene said: “There is nothing like natural and clear successor in Zanu-PF. All leaders come from the people and even President Mugabe came from the people. If she thinks it was natural as she wants people to believe, why was she canvassing people to be aligned to her?”
Political analyst Mr Goodwine Mureriwa said the former Vice President should be grateful for the positions she attained both in the party and Government while she was still a member of the ruling party, adding she got to high offices because of the benevolence of the President.
More so, President Mugabe has often said that leaders are chosen by the people through set down processes and are not imposed.
