Axed Zim vice-president’s signal to challenge Mugabe

HARARE: Zimbabwe’s ousted vice-president, Joice Mujuru, published plans yesterday to relax security and media laws and review divisive black empowerment legislation, signalling she could be lining up a challenge to President Robert Mugabe in the 2018 elections.

Mujuru, once seen as one of Mugabe’s closest allies, was dismissed from her government and ruling party posts in December on charges that she led a cabal that planned to topple Africa’s oldest leader. She dismissed the accusations.

Yesterday, she published a Blueprint to Unlock Investment and Leverage for Development (Build) – a two-page plan that reads like an election manifesto.

“We have been hard at work and I wish to share with you, in brief, how we propose to translate our vision for a better Zimbabwe into reality,” Mujuru wrote.

Mujuru, 60, has not formed a political party. But during her 10 years as Mugabe’s deputy she was seen as a shoo-in to replace Zimbabwe’s sole leader since independence from Britain in 1980.

Her policy document comes at a time the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change has split and weakened over how to confront Mugabe.

The ruling Zanu-PF party has already chosen Mugabe as its candidate for the 2018 presidential poll, when he will be 94.

In the document, Mujuru says a black empowerment law, which forces foreign-owned firms to sell majority shares to locals, would be reviewed to attract investment and help build infrastructure.

Foreign investors often cite the empowerment law as a barrier to investing in the mineralrich nation, which is struggling to emerge from a catastrophic recession that was marked by hyperinflation and food shortages.

Mujuru said she would push for a free press and a repeal of restrictive media and broadcasting laws that ban private television stations. – Reuters