Joyce Mujuru

At eighteen years old, Mujuru was the only woman who trained in Lusaka. After completing two years of secondary education, she decided to join the Rhodesian Bush War. She is said to have downed a helicopter with a machine gun on 17 February 1974 after refusing to flee.The helicopter downing incident has been vehemently denied by War Veterans chairman, Christopher Mutsvangwa after her expulsion from the party; other ballistic experts have also questioned the possibility of shooting down a helicopter with such a light weapon as narrated on her story. By 1975, she was the political instructor of two successful military bases. At 21, Mujuru was camp commander at the Chimoio military and refugee camp in Mozambique.

She took the nom-de-guerre Teurai Ropa (Shona for "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 by his nom-de-guerre Rex Nhongo, deputy commander-in-chief of ZANLA. That same year, she became the youngest member of the ZANU Central Committee, a member of the National Executive. Her political activity made her a target for the Rhodesian security forces, which tried to capture her but were unsuccessful. On 23 November 1977 the ZANLA camp at Chimoio came under attack from Rhodesian forces as part of Operation Dingo. Mujuru avoided capture by carefully concealing herself in a well-used communal pit latrine. In 1978, when her camp came under attack, Muruju—nine months pregnant at the time—was still an active combatant. She gave birth only days later.

At independence in 1980, Mujuru became the youngest cabinet minister in the 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. Masiyiwa had been given an ultimatum by the cabinet to sell his imported equipment to his rivals. On 24 March 1997, Mujuru decided to issue Zimbabwe's second cellular telephone licence to the previously unknown Zairois consortium Telecel, 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.

She currently lives on Alamein Farm, a productive and high-value operation illegally requisitioned as part of the land reform programme from Guy Watson-Smith in 2001, as found by the Zimbabwe High Court and international courts. In 2001 the Mujuru family became the subject of the first legal action against any member of Mr Mugabe's inner circle implicated in the illegal seizure of land and assets. The seizure of Alamein Farm was ruled illegal by the Supreme Court of Zimbabwe.

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.

Mujuru was sworn in as Vice-President of Zimbabwe on 6 December 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. 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. After the election, she was again sworn in as Vice-President by Mugabe on 13 October 2008, together with Msika.

Joice Mujuru was implicated in a 2009 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.

In late 2014, Mujuru was accused of plotting against Mugabe and became an outcast within ZANU-PF. She lost her positions in the party leadership at the December 2014 congress, and shortly afterward, on 8 December 2014, Mugabe dismissed her from her post as Vice-President, along with ministers who were identified with her faction. In comments published on 9 December, the same day the dismissals were announced, Mujuru said that the claims that she had plotted against Mugabe were "ridiculous".

On 10 December 2014, Mugabe appointed Mujuru's long-time rival in the succession battle, Emmerson Mnangagwa, to replace her as Vice-President.

Mujuru was expelled from ZANU-PF on 3 April 2015 and subsequently moved on to form the Zimbabwe People First party, in opposition to ZANU-PF. In 2017 after expelling seven senior members of the Zimbabwe People First party, she changed its name to National People's Party when the expelled members challenged ownership of the Zimbabwe People First name. Joice Mujuru signed an alliance with 20 smaller parties during the run up to the 2018 Presidential election. This was believed to be a counter to Tsvangirai's MDC alliance that is to give her a large bargaining power on the coalition table. The Lucia Matibenga-led People's Democratic Party (PDP), Dumiso Dabengwa's Zapu and the NPP unveiled a coalition pact to challenge Zanu PF in Matabeleland in the 2018 elections.The Zapu, NPP and PDP leadership said they would not contest each other for any parliamentary seats in Matabeleland, before noting that "doors were still open" for a broader coalition with other opposition parties, raising fears that the MDC Alliance, which was announced recently, could have hit turbulence.

Mujuru turns 63

Joice Teurai Ropa Mujuru (born Runaida Mugari, 15 April 1955 today celebrates her 63th birthday. She’s a well known Zimbabwean politician, who served as the Vice President of the Republic of …