Joice Mujuru

Infobox Vice President
honorific-prefix = The Honourable Vice President
name = Joice Mujuru
honorific-suffix = MP


imagesize = 85px
small

caption = Joice Mujuru
order =
office = Vice President of Zimbabwe
term_start = 6 December 2004
term_end =
vicepresident = Joseph Msika
viceprimeminister =
deputy =
lieutenant =
monarch =
president = Robert Mugabe
primeminister = Morgan Tsvangirai
governor =
succeeding =
predecessor = Simon Muzenda
successor =
constituency =
majority =
order2 =
office2 =Minister of Rural Resources & Water Development
term_start2 =1997
term_end2 =2004
vicepresident2 =
viceprimeminister2 =
deputy2 =
lieutenant2 =
monarch2 =
president2 =Robert Mugabe
primeminister2 =
governor2 =
succeeding2 =
predecessor2 =
successor2 =
constituency2 =
majority2 =
order3 =
office3 =Minister of Information, Post and Telecommunication
term_start3 =1996
term_end3 =1997
vicepresident3 =
viceprimeminister3 =
deputy3 =
lieutenant3 =
monarch3 =
president3 =Robert Mugabe
primeminister3 =
governor3 =
succeeding3 =
predecessor3 =
successor3 =
constituency3 =
majority3 =
order4 =
office4 =Resident Minister and Governor for Mashonaland Central
term_start4 =1992
term_end4 =1996
vicepresident4 =
viceprimeminister4 =
deputy4 =
lieutenant4 =
monarch4 =
president4 =Robert Mugabe
primeminister4 =
governor4 =
succeeding4 =
predecessor4 =
successor4 =
constituency4 =
majority4 =
order5 =
office5 =Minister of Community Development, Cooperatives and Women’s Affairs
term_start5 =1988
term_end5 =1992
vicepresident5 =
viceprimeminister5 =
deputy5 =
lieutenant5 =
monarch5 =
president5 =Robert Mugabe
primeminister5 =
governor5 =
succeeding5 =
predecessor5 =
successor5 =
constituency5 =
majority5 =
order6 =
office6 =Minister of State by the Prime Minister
term_start6 =1985
term_end6 =1988
vicepresident6 =
viceprimeminister6 =
deputy6 =
lieutenant6 =
monarch6 =
president6 =Canaan Banana
Robert Mugabe
primeminister6 =Robert Mugabe
governor6 =
succeeding6 =
predecessor6 =
successor6 =
constituency6 =
majority6 =
order7 =
office7 =Minister of Community Development and Women’s Affairs
term_start7 =1980
term_end7 =1985
vicepresident7 =
viceprimeminister7 =
deputy7 =
lieutenant7 =
monarch7 =
president7 =Canaan Banana
primeminister7 =Robert Mugabe
governor7 =
succeeding7 =
predecessor7 =
successor7 =
constituency7 =
majority7 =
birth_date = Birth date and age|1955|4|15|df=y
birth_place =
death_date =
death_place =
nationality = flagicon|Zimbabwe Zimbabwean
spouse = Solomon Mujuru
party = Zanu PF
relations =
children =4
residence = flagicon|ZimbabweAlamein Farm, Harare, Zimbabwe
alma_mater = Women's University, Africa
occupation = Vice President of Zimbabwe
profession =
religion =


website = http://www.vpmujuruoffice.gov.zw/
footnotes =
nickname =Teurai Ropa
allegiance =ZANLA
branch =
serviceyears =1972 - 1980
rank =Commissar
unit =
commands =Second in Command of Zhunta Camp
battles =
awards =
military_blank1 =
military_data1 =
military_blank2 =
military_data2 =
military_blank3 =
military_data3 =
military_blank4 =
military_data4 =
military_blank5 =
military_data5 =

Joice Mujuru (born April 15, 1955 as Joice 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.

Mujuru was born in Zimbabwe's northeastern district of Mt. Darwin, a Shona from the Zezeru 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 allegedly 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. [http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2089-1388612,00.html Mugabe’s successor could be Spill Blood, the rabid girl guerrilla] Timesonline]

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 [ [http://www.chico.mweb.co.za/mg/za1/24mar-news.html#zimcell Zim government leaves out cellphone pioneer] ZA*NOW] . 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 [ [http://www.btimes.co.za/98/1018/world/world03.htm How a man called Strive beat off the corrupt cronies] Business Times] , 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.

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.

Mujuru was sworn in as Vice-President of Zimbabwe on December 6 2004. [ [http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?reportid=52333 "ZIMBABWE: Mujuru sworn in as vice president"] , IRIN, December 6, 2004.]

Mujuru was nominated as ZANU-PF's candidate for the House of Assembly seat from Mt. Darwin West in the March 2008 parliamentary election. [ [http://allafrica.com/stories/200802150006.html "Zimbabwe: Zanu-PF Names Poll Candidates"] , "The Herald" (allAfrica.com), February 15, 2008.] 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. [Mutongi Gava, [http://www.newzimbabwe.com/pages/electoral204.17985.html "VP Mujuru not defeated"] , newzimbabwe.com, March 31, 2008.]

She is the subject of personal sanctions imposed by the United States. [ [http://www.zwnews.com/issuefull.cfm?ArticleID=13267 US Personal Sanctions] ZWNews ]

References

External links

* [http://www.vpmujuruoffice.gov.zw/ Official Website]
* [http://www.mujuru.com/ "Mujuru Story" Website] Mujuru.com
* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6507993.stm BBC NEWS website Profile] BBC
* [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2001/12/24/wzim24.xml Sunday Telegraph Article on Illegal Land Grab] Daily Telegraph
* [http://www.sundaytribune.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=2367172 Say hello to Bob's heir apparent] Sunday Tribune