Mujuru, allies face arrest

PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe yesterday said all ministers and top civil servants involved in corruption risked prosecution and dismissal once substantial evidence is gathered linking them to the allegations.

PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe yesterday said all ministers and top civil servants involved in corruption risked prosecution and dismissal once substantial evidence is gathered linking them to the allegations.

PAIDAMOYO MUZULU SENIOR REPORTER

Mugabe made the remarks in his keynote speech marking the official opening of Zanu PF’s sixth national congress in Harare.

Vice-President Joice Mujuru
Vice-President Joice Mujuru

“All those implicated in corruption cases shall be arrested if substantial evidence is gathered,” Mugabe said.

“Even if you are a minister, deputy minister of senior civil servant, you will be fired.”

Mugabe’s comments were seen as targeted at embattled Vice-President Joice Mujuru and her allies, who for the past three months have been accused of engaging in corrupt activities and seeking to unconstitutionally topple the Zanu PF leader.

Mujuru and her close allies like Presidential Affairs minister and Zanu PF secretary for administration Didymus Mutasa as well as politburo member and Labour minister Nicholas Goche were conspicuous by their absence at the congress forcing the party to rearrange the top table where Mugabe could have cut a forlorn figure.

secretary for administration, Didymus Mutasa,
secretary for administration, Didymus Mutasa,

Senate president Edna Madzongwe and Speaker of the National Assembly Jacob Mudenda were quickly elevated to the top table.

Mugabe told the delegates that Mujuru and Mutasa were behaving like thieves by absenting themselves without notifying the party.

“You see they are not here today,” he said.

“We wanted them to come so that they would meet you. We did not stop them, but they just sneaked without informing us like thieves.”

Earlier in his speech, Mugabe “apologised” to the delegates for the conduct of some top party leaders, particularly the public brawls that enveloped the party in the past three months.

He said such behaviour was not consistent with good leadership.

“We have not behaved in a manner that showed we are united,” he said.

“We were all working for the party. Some failed us while some of us failed you.”

Mugabe said the events had left him with a deep sense of sorrow that as leadership they had failed to lead by example.

Labour minister Nicholas Goche
Labour minister Nicholas Goche

He added: “Our constitution says that the disciplining of a member is done by the provincial executives and thus we should adhere to the constitution and not use our hatred in disciplining those we disagree with.”

In the two months leading to congress, nine provincial chairpersons and others perceived Mujuru allies were summarily suspended or dismissed from the party without following due process.

The congress, which ends tomorrow, is being attended by about 12 000 delegates and is expected to endorse Mugabe as the life-president of the party with powers to appoint all other party leaders.

The 90-year-old party leader, who has been at the helm since independence in 1980, would now have unfettered powers to appoint his deputies, national chairman and all politburo members.