Joyce Mujuru’s presidential hopes dealt blow in Zimbabwe

Zimbabwean vice-president Joyce Mujuru’s chances of becoming the country’s next leader have been dealt a significant blow by the ruling Zanu-PF party’s decision to bar her from contesting a seat on its top committee.

State-run media outlets in Zimbabwe on Wednesday reported that her home provincial executive committee had refused to accept Ms Mujuru's election papers ahead of a key elective party congress next week in which Zanu-PF's top leadership positions will be filled.

The Herald newspaper reported that Ms Mujuru had lost her bid to secure a central committee post on the "basis that she was implicated in leading a faction that was plotting to assassinate President [Robert] Mugabe".

Zanu-PF’s vice-presidents and the members of its politburo, the party’s most senior decision-making body, which runs its day-to-day affairs, are selected from its 245-member central committee.

The newspaper also said several of Ms Mujuru’s senior party allies, including cabinet ministers, had also lost out in central committee elections in their regions.

Ms Mujuru's fate now rests in the hands of Mr Mugabe, who as party president appoints 10 members to the committee. If she does not make the cut she has no chance of retaining her vice-presidency role.

She has held that for 10 years and has yet to comment on the prospect of losing the post.

Until recently she was considered the leading contender to take over from Mr Mugabe (90). But since September Mr Mugabe’s wife, Joyce, who recently entered politics after accepting a nomination to lead Zanu-PF’s women’s league has led a campaign to discredit her.

That nomination is expected to be ratified at the elective conference that begins on December 3rd, as she was the only person put forward for the position. Many observers believe she is entering politics to protect her family’s wealth and privileged position in the event her aging husband soon retires.

Ms Mujuru is the leader of what analysts say is the more moderate of Zanu-PF’s two factions and is popular among the party’s grassroot supporters.

Earlier this month she rejected the “false claims” that she was trying to topple Mugabe. She warned she would take her fight to the courts to clear her name.

Ms Mujuru's main rival for the party's top position is the powerful current justice minister Emmerson Mnangagwa,

whom Joyce Mugabe has repeatedly lauded on recent tour of the country’s provinces. He is seen as a stalwart of the party’s old guard generation, which supports Mr Mugabe’s anti-western sentiment.

Mr Mugabe has done little to resolve the succession battle that has raged within his movement for years, but last weekend at a politburo meeting he changed the party’s constitution to allow him to solely appoint his two deputies.

Until this change Zanu-PF’s president and deputies had been elected by members from the country’s 10 regions.

The deputies automatically took up the same posts in government and Mr Mugabe’s successor is widely expected to come from one of these two posts.

If the president decides to sideline Ms Mujuru he runs the risk of seriously damaging the ruling party given her popularity within it.