Former vice president turned leader of the opposition National People’s Party, Joice Mujuru has claimed that former president Robert Mugabe took advantage of the fact that some of his ministers were illiterate at Independence to control them. Mujuru claims that because some of the ministers had poor English language skills they felt that they could not challenge Mugabe during cabinet meetings when he made a wrong call. Because of this coupled with their respect for Mugabe, Mujuru claims most of the ministers never challenged Mugabe’s judgement. In an interview, Mujuru said:
As for me, I had to spend three weeks before occupying my office as a new minister of sports because I wasn’t sure about what I was expected to do.
Worse, my subordinates were white Rhodesian civil servants and yet I was unable to construct even one English sentence to delegate.
My first job in government was as minister of youth, sports and recreation but I reluctantly took it; my first option was to go into the army, the reason being that I was uneducated.
…You see, it became very difficult for us when now we were in the cabinet, we all assumed Mugabe was right since he was our teacher.
Imagine telling you tutor during the day that you are wrong in the cabinet and then later the same person is your teacher during the night.
This is where I think it got into Mugabe’s head right up to the end; he could no longer even listen or take advice from his former students.
Mujuru later pursued her education and received her PhD from the University of Zimbabwe in 2014, together with former first lady Grace Mugabe.
More: New Zimbabwe
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