Mugabe Flexes His Muscle On Joice Mujuru, As Solomon Mujuru’s Estate Should Compensate Former Owners Of Ruzambo Farm In Beatrice

We approach the Zanu PF annual people’s December Congress for 2015, that will run from 7th December to 13 December, with great interest at the going’s on in Mugabe’s  Zanu PF party.

The Zanu PF is slowly degenerating into the inevitable status of implosion as Mugabe has lost control of the organisation. This time last year, was the period that grace Mugabe launched her entry into the political arena.

She was the main figure behind  the dismissal of  several key long term Zanu PF stalwarts such as the former vice president Joice Mujuru, Rugare Gumbo, Didymus Mutasa, and many more on trumped up treason, corruption allegations  and other party breaches.

Joice Mujuru was presented as the most corrupt figure ever and subsequently lost her job as Zimbabwe’s vice president but to date the nation has never been presented with evidence of the corruption allegations, nor has she ever been hauled before the courts to answer to the allegations.

To the discerning eye, there are two clear possibilities, which is, Mugabe deliberately dismissed Mujuru as vice president but he left her a full member of Zanu PF to instill fear amongst her followers or any other Zanu PF stalwarts who might have ideas of removing him from power.

Secondly Mugabe, knew that her ex  husband, the late General Solomon Mujuru was, arguably the most corrupt ever Zimbabwean. He is on record as having left an estate valued at over US$9 Billion dollars, which is  more than Zimbabwe’s gross domestic product.  Almost 5 years since the general’s death, the estate, which comprised of farms, mines, companies amongst a whole host of corruptly amassed wealth is yet to be finalised and distributed.

Mugabe is a vindictive man who could easily pull the carpet from under your feet as he did to Joice Mujuru or simply send you to an early grave as he did with her ex husband the late General Solomon Mujuru, who was murdered and burnt beyond recognition at ‘his’ Beatrice Farm, of course we all know Mugabe was behind this, as evidenced by the fact that no one has ever been arrested or charged with the offence of killing the king maker in Zimbabwe, arguably the only man who could stand up to Mugabe and the man who engineered Joice Mujuru’s rise to the position of Zimbabwe’s vice president.

He took Solomon out easily, leaving Joice Mujuru exposed and then used Grace Mugabe to execute her fall from Grace. Now Joice Mujuru, still full time Zanu PF , leaves the public to waste their time in talking about a, ‘literally non existent ‘People First’ party project, which has no structures, manifestos or evidence of existence, because she knows if she steps out of line, she will face Mugabe’s wrath as he could easily confiscate the corruptly amassed US$9 billion general Solomon’s Mujuru estate and  imprison Joice Mujuru on corruption charges.

He has always been able to keep opponents or threats to his power, whether real or perceived, at bay by just building up charges which are kept hanging but never brought before courts.

Over the last two weeks we have seen a swoop down on key people in the Zanu PF propaganda machinery, the state media, such as journalists in the Herald and Sunday News papers. The Herald Assistant News Editor Takunda Maodza arrested by detectives for allegedly demanding a bribe from mr  Levy of Sam levy village in Harare.

Less than a week prior to this,   Sunday Mail journalists arrested on November 2, interestingly the  UN Day Against Impunity For Targeting Journalists. The Sunday Mail Editor, Mabasa Sasa, Investigations Editor Brian Chitemba and reporter Tinashe Farawo were arrested on 2 November at their offices over a story alleging that a senior police officer was involved in elephant poaching.

Hitting the state machinery hard, is obviously  Mugabe flexing his muscle in preparation for the December 2015 Zanu PF congress. The issue of the succession to Mugabe is one topic that no one dares to talk about in the Zanu PF corridors of power, for fear of losing their lives.

Mugabe however, is keenly aware that, because of his advanced age of 92, now regular falls in public, long stay as leader 36 years at the helm of Zimbabwe’s leadership since independance 18 April 1980, memory lapses midway through speeches and reading wrong and out dated speeches, the question of succession cannot always be thrown aside and will need to be addressed especially at the next congress.

To silence growing rumblings against the unresolved succession and rise of Grace Mugabe, who people can clearly see heading to succed the despot, Mugabe has flexed his muscle and rallied state media into line and just for good measure , all of sudden the High Court has  ruled that the estate of Joice Mujuru’s late husband, General Solomon Mujuru, should pay US$1,4 million to the former owners of Ruzambo Farm in Beatrice.

General Solomon Mujuru, grabbed  Ruzambo Farm in Beatrice under the country’s murderous, land reform exercise which saw thousands of former white owners forcibly evicted and replaced with ‘new’ black owners.

Ruzambo Farm in Beatrice belonged to  Hanagwe Investments, who subsequently sued the late Gen Solomon  Mujuru, claiming  compensation for moveable property that was destroyed or disappeared after the Mujuru took over the land under the land reform programme.

Gen Solomon Mujuru, obviously with the blessings of president Robert Mugabe and his ex wife Joice Mujuru, the then vice president of Zimbabwe, chose to ignore  the court summons , failing to oppose the claim until his death in August 2011.

The former owners filed an application for a default judgment in 2012 through their lawyers Gill, Godlonton and Gerrans. The default judgement, was interestingly  eventually granted in August this 2015, ordering the late Gen Solomon Mujuru , posthumously, along with the Minister of Lands and Rural Resettlement; the Minister of Local Government, Public Works and National Housing and a Mr Zhou, who was identified as the then Zanu PF  war veterans leader in the Beatrice area to compensate  Hanagwe Investments US$1 469 440 including the costs of the suit.

Their properties of the named cabinet minister’s, cited in their official capacities  cannot be attached over the case. This effectively means the late Gen Solomon Mujuru’s property is left vulnerable the estate of the late Gen Mujuru vulnerable to the lawsuit.

Even though Zimbabwe’s Highcourt granted the company US$1,4 million compensation, their initial claim was a sum of US$2,1 million, .

In summary  Justice Dube ordered the defendants to pay to  the plaintiff  a sum of US$1 469 440  with interest calculated at the rate of 5 percent per annum from 20 August 2004 until the date of full payment and the plaintiff’s costs of suit.

The compensation demanded by Hanagwe Investments is for  the following livestock and equipment, 3 Honda motorcycles  311 head of cattle, 85 hectares of irrigated tobacco,  487 game animals, 7 tractors, tonnes of fertiliser, irrigation equipment, 4 pick-up trucks, tobacco curing equipment, a workshop welder and compressor, standby generators, fuel storage tanks, stock feed along with various  farm equipment and accessories all valued at over US$1 million.

Hanagwe, according to the summons, deposited in 2001, owned all the moveable assets on Ruzambo Farm in Beatrice. Hanagwe Investments were denied access to the farm by the late Gen Solomon Mujuru, and  barred from removing  movable assets  from the farm.

It however took a long time for the widow of the late gen Solomon Mujuru, to  finally register the estate at the High Court

This case poses a nightmare for Mugabe at the same time because, the general was an icon of Zimbabwe’s liberation and formed the vanguard of the struggle. When the general’s estate succumbs to compensating previous owners, it effectively leaves all recipients of farms under the land reform programme, vulnerable to costly compensation of former owners.

This court order is only allowed by Mugabe to run at the moment as way of placing pressure on the former vice president and reminding her that she should not at any point attempt to oppose the rise of his wife to the post of president, by either turning the ‘People First ‘project into a fully fledged opposition force, or drawing a mass of followers to break away from the main Zanu PF body.

If Mugabe can’t protect the estate of the general now effectively Joice Mujuru’s, then no Zimbabwean has any guarantees about anything as all past 15 years would have effectively gone to waste. I therefore advance that this Beatrice farm saga  will not result in anything concrete even if a court order has been issued,  because it has the danger of causing mass uprising in defiance to Mugabe and his Zanu PF as soon as farm recipients realise that they are vulnerable to compensation of former owners and open to eviction, typically a proxy war in the making. Suffice it is to say that where the land reform exercise is concerned , we are not out of the woods yet.

In summary, when the despot hits Joice Mujuru, in this manner, Rugare Gumbo and Didymus Mutasa and effectively  the People First project, are immediately  silenced, while at the same time, hitting state media journalists, makes sure that they are replaced by those who will conform to his plans and align themselves with his final initiative in office if not in life of imposing Grace Mugabe as president.  by Sibusiso Ngwenya

photo-Zimbabwe’s former vice president Joice Mujuru and  president Robert Mugabe