News Analysis: Heavyweight joins Zimbabwe's opposition politics, Mugabe unfazed

Zimbabwe's former Vice President Joice Mujuru, who was axed from both the government and the ruling Zanu-PF party in 2014, has become 92-year-old President Robert Mugabe's new nemesis, vowing to face off with him in the 2018 presidential elections.

While the veteran leader for the past 36 years appeared unfazed about Mujuru's launch of her party, Zimbabwe People First, last week, the move has triggered excitement among both her supporters and those of the main opposition party, MDC-T.

Speculation is rife on whether Mujuru will join hands with MDC-T leader and former Prime Minister, Morgan Tsvangirai and other opposition leaders to form a grand coalition against Mugabe in 2018, amid indications that the option is enticing to most of them.

Launching her party, Mujuru said her party was inclusive and willing to engage other like-minded persons to dislodge Zanu-PF from power in a free and fair election.

Welshman Ncube, the leader of the MDC-N in the legislature, appears a bit shaken by Mujuru's entry into opposition politics, and would rather have had a coalition a coalition of those who had opposed Mugabe's party since the formation of the then one MDC party in 1999.

The then MDC spit in 2005 into the two parties currently led by Tsvangirai and Ncube respectively.

Referring to the split, Ncube said nobody could undo history "but we can create the future".

He said that if the parties consider working with Mujuru, they should find ways of working together despite their differences.

"If we are to bring the misery of our people to an end in 2018, we must seek ways of building coalitions which exclude no one who, at the barest minimum, is committed to seeing an end to Zanu-PF rule," he said.

Jameson Timba, a senior MDC-T member and former minister, welcomed the launch of Mujuru's party, saying it would help build a "plural and tolerant democratic culture" in the country.

MDC-T spokesman, Obert Gutu, has said the party was willing to work with any opposition party.

Mujuru has rich experience in government, having joined as the youngest cabinet minister in 1980 at age 25.

She was appointed Vice President in 2004, and was once seen as the most powerful person after Mugabe.

Having built structures from the grassroots to the top, Mujuru appeared headed for the presidency, until her dismissal in 2014 on allegations of plotting to topple the president.

Political analyst Tichaona Muchapera said Mujuru still held some sway over the ruling party, and "the fallacy was in sacking her without dismantling the grassroots structures she had built."

The public have also expressed mixed feelings on Mujuru's move, with some describing her as the other side of the same coin.

Many remain skeptical whether she has really left Zanu-PF or is part of a grand strategy to further divide the opposition, while others see her as a more viable option to wage a strong challenge against Mugabe in 2018 than "perennial loser" Tsvangirai.

Tonderai Makwara, a Zimbabwean commentator, said while Mujuru's new outfit was enticing, he would rather wait and see what would happen on the ground as the fledgling party grew its structures.

"It's still too early to say where she is headed. We will see with time as she articulates her party's principles and see how the elective congress she talked about will present new leaders to the nation. If it is the same people who were in Zanu-PF, then it's a waste of time," he said.

Some MDC-T supporters have however dismissed her as an "opportunist" who is trying to ride on the sympathy she got when she was fired from Zanu-PF.

Zanu-PF has literally ignored Mujuru's party launch.

In a televised interview last week to mark his 92nd birthday, Mugabe belittled the envisaged grand coalition of opposition parties, saying that they were no threat to the ruling party. Endit