Former Zimbabwe vice president Joice Mujuru has vowed never to go back to Zanu PF.

Speaking during the launch of her Zimbabwe People First party in Harare on Tuesday, Mujuru said she was now outside the revolutionary party and only working towards the progress of Zimbabwe.

“I’ll never go back [to Zanu PF],” she told a press conference, which besides assembled media, included representatives from the business and farming community, church representatives as well as the diplomatic corps.

“I have known only one political party since l joined the liberation struggle. I am now outside that party.”

She also dismissed witchcraft and assassin accusations against her which was cited as the reasons for he expulsion from the party two years ago.

“I’m neither an assassin nor a witch,” Mujuru said, after First Lady Grace Mugabe in 2014 accused her of being a witch planning to assassinate President Robert Mugabe, and even of hiring an alleged Israeli hitman.

In a veiled attack on War Veterans minister Christopher Mutsvangwa, Mujuru said she did not harbour any wroingdoings against her.

“I don’t harbour anything that some people would have done against me. Some of these people maybe did not understand who I am. They were just talking. Maybe they were told to say those things. If you ask them to come and say those things face-to-face with me, he might not be in a position to repeat what he said, because I know either he said those things under the influence of toxic substances.

“So it’s not anything that pays anybody, we have more important things to talk about, to discuss about and get the country forward,” Mujuru said.

Mutsvangwa was the first to attack Mujuru during the build-up towards her firing from both government and party, accusing her of lying that she had downed a helicopter during the liberation struggle.

She was kicked out along with several other former Zanu PF bigwigs, who include Rugare Gumbo, now People First spokesperson, and Didymus Mutasa, former State Security minister.

Mujuru, at the media briefing, referred to Gumbo and Mutasa, who were also present, as Zimbabwe People First “founding elders”.

The former VP said Zimbabweans were living under an unjust system.

“There is selective application of the law, one for the poor and powerless, the other for the rich and powerful,” she said.

“Today, we confirm the existence of a viable, homegrown and inclusive political party.

“The times we are living in call for truth to correct our past wrongs, change for good, unity and determination.”

She went on to quote the late Zimbabwean liberation war hero Josiah Tongogara, saying: “One of Zimbabwe’s greatest sons in the liberation war, General Josiah Magama Tongogara, once said: ‘We are not fighting against the white man. We are fightin against a system. It is the system, the system, that system which is unjust.’ Today, that unjust system Zanla, Zipra and the Zimbabwean masses fought against, remains a noose around our necks, as that system has stolen any hope for the people of Zimbabwe.”

Zanla and Zipra were the armed wings of Zanu and PF Zapu respectively during the liberation struggle.

Meanwhile, People First supporters from all over the country milled outside the Meikles Hotel as Mujuru addressed the media briefing, after which she addressed them.

Some said they had come from as far as Victoria Falls, about 880km north-west of the capital Harare.

– African News Agency (ANA)