ZANU-PF succession battle gets dirtier as Mai Mujuru is implicated in a US$1 million scandal

The Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front succession battle is getting dirtier as the party’s December congress draws nearer. Vice-President Joice Mujuru, who First Lady Grace Mugabe has insisted must resign because she is allegedly thoroughly corrupt and wants to oust her husband, has now been implicated in a US$1 million scandal, according to The Herald.  The paper claims that the scandal involves Mujuru, her daughter Nyasha Del Campo, and her husband’s former business partner Tirivanhu Mudariki. The three are alleged to have entered into a business partnership with two Kenyans Mukesh Vaya and Nilesh Ashkal Kantil as well as Babu RM a citizen of India. They are alleged to have dumped the business partners after they had pumped in more than US$1 million into a duty free business at the Harare International Airport trading as International Travel Shops Africa (Pvt). The Herald claims that Vice-President Mujuru personally benefitted from cash payments totaling US$70 000. The payments were allegedly made between December 2011 and January 2012 more than four months after her husband’s mysterious death in a fire. It is not clear whether this is an attempt to show that VP Mujuru is corrupt on her own or not. Some of her supporters have argued that the corruption allegations VP Mujuru was being accused of pertained to her husband Solomon Mujuru so she could not be blamed for her late husband’s actions. The allegations were also made when the party’s powerful politburo is expected to meet today to discuss, among other issues, VP Mujuru’s future.

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