A TOP official in former Vice-President Joice Mujuru’s opposition National People’s Party (NPP)’s national standing committee, Petronella Musarurwa has landed herself in trouble with fellow party members, who have labelled her a Zanu PF spy following her recent appointment to the seven-member commission of inquiry into the sale of State land.
The commission, appointed last week by President Robert Mugabe was mandated to investigate all illegal sales of State land that have occurred in the country since 2005.
Musarurwa, who sits in the NPP’s national standing committee and national executive council, confirmed the development yesterday, but said she had not yet received her letter of appointment.
“It is true, but I have not yet received the letter of appointment,” she said, as she ducked questions surrounding her appointment to a quasi-government board when she is in the opposition camp
Other members of the commission include Justice Tendai Uchena (chairperson), Andrew Mlalazi, Stephen Chakaipa, Tarisai Mutangi, Heather Chingono, Vimbai Nyemba with Justice ministry secretary Virginia Mabhiza as secretary of the commission.
NPP sources said Musarurwa’s appointment smacked of “betrayal and selling out”, adding they now suspected she could be a Zanu PF spy.
“Of all the people, how can she be in Mugabe’s commission when she says she is in the opposition? We now doubt her sincerity to opposition politics. Remember this is a position which she applied for and which will undergo vetting. Do you think Mugabe is foolish to appoint her into the commission? Obviously, she has been a Zanu PF agent. We have been infiltrated heavily, even in the top officials. We suspect several others who sit in the top six,” an NPP source speaking on condition of anonymity said.
In January this year, Mujuru raised concern over alleged infiltration of her party by suspected Zanu PF moles.
“We hear that among our war veterans in the party, someone was given $90 000 so that they keep quiet. Such is the level of Zanu PF infiltration, which has targeted us more than the MDC-T. They are no longer worried about the MDC-T, but the focus is now on us,” she said then.