POLITICAL analysts have described Zimbabwe People First (ZimPF) leader Joice Mujuru’s recent move to compensate the former owner of her Ruzambu Farm in Beatrice as a positive move which inspires investor confidence as it guarantees security of tenure and respects property rights.
BY EVERSON MUSHAVA
Mujuru last Thursday met former Ruzambu owner, Guy Watson Smith in London and offered to compensate him for improvements he had made at the farm before it was gazetted for compulsory acquisition by government and allocated to the late army general Solomon Mujuru in 2001.
Political analyst Eldred Masunungure said: “Her decision aligns her actions with the party position. She wants to set things right within the parameters of the law and lead by example.
“However, she will be condemned heartily by Zanu PF supporters who will say she was never one of them. But Mujuru’s actions will likely attract moral support locally and internationally. Her star will rise but fall steeply in another political society.”
Economist Vince Musewe said what Mujuru did would bring the issue of compensation into the limelight.
“The Constitution requires that, but whether personal compensation by those who took over the farms is relevant to the matter I am not sure,” Musewe said.
“Zanu PF will, however, react very negatively to that as usual because many of them took farms, which they can’t afford to compensate owners personally as she has done.”
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Researcher and political analyst Dewa Mavhinga said: “Zanu PF is very predictable, it will most likely resort to political propaganda to discredit Mujuru and cast her as a traitor now reaching out to dispossessed white commercial farmers.”
But political analyst and former head of the Harare polytechnic Mass Communication department Reward Mushayabasa said people should not be fooled by Mujuru’s gesture.
“This is nothing beyond political posturing. Mujuru was a member of Zanu PF for almost her entire life and she now wants to rebrand herself as the acceptable face of Zanu PF,” Mushayabasa said.
He challenged Mujuru to pay back all she acquired corruptly when she was still part of the Zanu PF government.
