Joice Mujuru

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The Right Honourable
 Joice Mujuru 
MP
Joice Mujuru
Incumbent
Assumed office 
6 December 2004
Serving with Joseph Msika
President Robert Mugabe
Preceded by Simon Muzenda
In office
1997 – 2004
President Robert Mugabe
In office
1996 – 1997
President Robert Mugabe
In office
1992 – 1996
President Robert Mugabe
In office
1988 – 1992
President Robert Mugabe
In office
1985 – 1988
Prime Minister Robert Mugabe
In office
1980 – 1985
President Canaan Banana
Prime Minister Robert Mugabe
Born 15 April 1955 (1955-04-15) (age 54)
Mount Darwin, Rhodesia and Nyasaland
Political party Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front
Spouse Solomon Mujuru
Children 4
Residence Alamein Farm, Harare, Zimbabwe
Alma mater Women's University, Africa
Website http://www.vpmujuruoffice.gov.zw/
Military service
Nickname(s) Teurai Ropa
Allegiance Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army
Years of service 1972 – 1980
Rank Commissar
Commands Second in Command of Zhunta Camp

Joice Mujuru (born April 15, 1955 as Runaida Mugari) is a Zimbabwean politician, currently serving as one of two Vice-Presidents of Zimbabwe, along with Joseph Msika. She has held this post since December 2004, and is also a Vice-President of ZANU-PF. She is married to Solomon Mujuru and is considered a potential successor to President Robert Mugabe.

Contents

[edit] Early life

Mujuru was born in Zimbabwe's northeastern district of Mt. Darwin, a Shona from the Zezuru language group (Many Zanu-PF party leaders, including Mugabe and Msika, are also from this area). After completing two years of secondary education, she decided to join Zimbabwe's war of liberation. She is said to have downed a helicopter with a machine gun on February 17, 1974 after refusing to flee.

"Incredibly, I hit the machine and there was a lot of black smoke and it crashed. A big explosion followed," she was quoted as saying of the incident in which all the occupants of the helicopter perished.

She took the nom-de-guerre Teurai Ropa (spill blood), and then rose to become one of the first women commanders in Mugabe's ZANLA forces. In 1977 she married Solomon Mujuru, known then as Rex Nhongo, deputy commander-in-chief of ZANLA.

The Mujurus now live on a 3,500-acre requisitioned farm, Alamein, 45 miles south of Harare, which has been found by the Supreme Court in Zimbabwe to have been illegally requisitioned from the farm owner. [1]

[edit] Government career

At independence in 1980, Mujuru became the youngest cabinet minister in Mugabe's cabinet, taking the portfolio of sports, youth and recreation. She fitted secondary school in between her busy schedule after she was appointed minister.

As minister of telecommunications, she tried to stop Strive Masiyiwa from establishing his independent cellphone network Econet [2]. Masiyiwa had been given an ultimatum by the cabinet to sell his imported equipment to his rivals. On March 24, 1997, Mujuru decided to issue Zimbabwe's second cellular telephone license to the previously unknown Zairois consortium Telecel [3], cutting out Masiyiwa. The Zairois consortium included her husband Solomon and President Robert Mugabe's nephew Leo. After many legal fights, Masiyiwa won his licence in December 1997.

[edit] Vice-presidency

The ZANU-PF Women's League resolved at its annual conference held in September 2004 to put forward a female candidate for the party's vice-presidency, a position left vacant following the death of Simon Muzenda.

Mugabe bowed to pressure from a ZANU-PF faction led by Mujuru's husband, General Solomon Mujuru, to give a woman the second vice-presidency post—effectively sidelining speaker of parliament Emmerson Mnangagwa, widely seen as his favoured heir. This Zanu-PF reshuffle was dubbed “the night of the long knives” by the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation. [1]

Mujuru was sworn in as Vice-President of Zimbabwe on December 6, 2004.[4]

Mujuru was nominated as ZANU-PF's candidate for the House of Assembly seat from Mt. Darwin West in the March 2008 parliamentary election.[5] According to official results she won the seat by an overwhelming margin, receiving 13,236 votes against 1,792 for Gora Madzudzo, the candidate of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) faction led by Morgan Tsvangirai. This ran contrary to earlier claims from the MDC that Mujuru had lost the seat.[6] After the election, she was again sworn in as Vice President by Mugabe on 13 October 2008, together with Msika.[7]

She is the subject of personal sanctions imposed by the United States.[8]

[edit] Zimbabwe 'illegal gold sale bid'

Joice Mujuru has been implicated in the attempted sale of up to 3.5 tonnes of gold from the Democratic Republic of the Congo to a European company, in contravention of European Union sanctions on the part of that company.[9]

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b Mugabe’s successor could be Spill Blood, the rabid girl guerrilla Timesonline
  2. ^ Zim government leaves out cellphone pioneer ZA*NOW
  3. ^ How a man called Strive beat off the corrupt cronies Business Times
  4. ^ "ZIMBABWE: Mujuru sworn in as vice president", IRIN, December 6, 2004.
  5. ^ "Zimbabwe: Zanu-PF Names Poll Candidates", The Herald (allAfrica.com), February 15, 2008.
  6. ^ Mutongi Gava, "VP Mujuru not defeated", newzimbabwe.com, March 31, 2008.
  7. ^ "Zimbabwe President Mugabe swears in vice presidents", Xinhua (People's Daily Online), 14 October 2008.
  8. ^ US Personal Sanctions ZWNews
  9. ^ "Zimbabwe 'illegal gold sale bid'". BBC. 25 Feb 2009. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7907177.stm. Retrieved on 2009-02-28. 

[edit] External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joice_Mujuru"
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