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Joice Mujuru

George Maponga in Masvingo
Opposition National People’s Party (NPP) leader Dr Joice Mujuru on Thursday showed her strong admiration for President Mugabe by openly praising the Head of State and Government for propelling Zimbabwe into a country with one of the best educated citizens in Africa and beyond.

Zimbabwe is among nations with the highest literacy rate on the continent courtesy of President Mugabe’s post-independence policy to make sure education was accessible to everyone.

Addressing members of the party’s National Women’s League Convention at the Civic Centre in Masvingo, Dr Mujuru said President Mugabe should be hailed for making sure Zimbabwe had arguably the best human resources in Africa.

“We have educated people in this nation, people who have the best education with the potential to carry their country forward, ipapo ngatimutende mwana wa(Mbuya) Bona,” she said.

Dr Mujuru has personally credited President Mugabe for teaching and encouraging her to pursue education soon after independence when she was appointed a Cabinet minister despite being illiterate.

The NPP leader, who was fired from Zanu-PF for fronting a cabal that sought to depose President Mugabe in the run- up to the 2014 ruling party Congress, also conceded that Zanu-PF was one of the best supported political parties in Zimbabwe.

She said her party had agreed to sign a Memorandum of Understanding with the MDC-T led by Mr Morgan Tsvangirai as a precursor to a planned coalition between the two parties ahead of next year’s elections.

“We are engaged in coalition talks with the MDC-T led by Mr Tsvangirai and we have agreed to sign an MoU where we will set guidelines for coalition talks,” she said.

“The MoU will highlight areas where we agree and areas where we have differences will be set aside and ironed later on, but our target is to have one presidential candidate.”

Dr Mujuru said the other opposition parties, which she described as small, did not matter in the coalition equation.

She bemoaned the recent public fistfight between her top aides Mr Jealousy Mawarire and Mr Gift Nya- ndoro.

‘’It pains me very much that such senior party officials could do what they did (public fight), even when we are here it does not mean we do not have differences, but it’s how we solve them that matters,” she said.

The party’s senior official and national chair designate Mr Dzikamai Mavhaire seemed to suggest that Dr Mujuru was not firm enough as NPP leader, saying her word was supposed to be final as the buck stops with the party president.