Moyo said the allegations, carried by internet news sites, were “flattering, but unfortunately false”.

Moyo, reports said, had worked clandestinely with Zanu PF’s election campaign team and held regular meetings with top Zanu PF officials including Emmerson Mnangagwa at a house in Avondale owned by one Pauline Mahoya, said to be the second wife of former Midlands provincial governor, July Moyo.

The former Information Minister said the allegations, which he was not given an opportunity to respond to, were “coming from an absolutely idle mind”.

He said: “The people who were behind Mugabe’s media campaign deserve credit for a job well done, and the credit is not mine. I would have no qualms taking credit for it if I had engineered it as it is being said, but I do not deserve the credit, so I won’t take it.”

President Mugabe won with over 85 percent of the vote after Morgan Tsvangirai, his opponent in the run-off, withdrew from the race citing violence against his supporters.

Moyo said he had last met Mnangagwa in January, and July Moyo in September 2005. In fact, he had never set foot in Avondale, he said in an interview Tuesday.

“The allegation that I was having meetings with Mnangagwa are coming from a not so fertile mind… they come from an absolutely idle mind, a mind that cannot tell the difference between fantasy and reality,” Moyo blasted.

“As a matter of fact I last saw Mnangagwa in parliament, in January, well before the campaign for the March 29 election started. That’s the last time I saw him. As for July Moyo, I last saw him in 2005, around September 2005.

“I have never been to any house in Avondale before I left Zanu PF or now. Never ever! I have not even a small house there, nor a big one for that matter. I have not been in anybody’s house in Avondale. I could not have in reality appeared in such a house outside someone with an undeveloped imagination.

“I may know people in Avondale, but none of them have been kind enough to invite me to their houses.”

Moyo, it was further alleged, recruited TV presenter Tich Mataz to run Zanu PF’s publicity drive – including the printing of T-Shirts and posters. That is “another fantasy”, Moyo said.

“I last saw Tich Mataz at some restaurant around June 2005. He is certainly good at what he does, and I would be happy to work with him. I don’t know what he is up to, or what he is doing.

“I do not want to offend the real people who were behind Zanu PF’s successful campaign, which is Sharon Mugabe and others. Again, I need to point out I have never had any working relationship with her of any kind, none whatsoever.”

Moyo said he saw no point of working behind the scenes and hiding “as if I have never worked with Zanu PF, as if I don’t know that those who have met before can easily meet again, or those who have worked together before can easily work together again”.

He added: “That said, I wonder why people can associate me with a campaign that never was. It was Morgan Tsvangirai who handed the presidency to Mugabe on a silver platter by withdrawing from the contest and leaving one assured outcome.

“Tsvangirai transformed the campaign from a runoff into a one-off. So there is no need to talk about campaigns, the fact of the matter is Tsvangirai single handedly elected Mugabe and that is a truth that those publishing lies about me should live with.”

Moyo has been rumoured to be on the verge of getting a new ministerial appointment in the new government. It has been suggested that he could also rejoin Zanu PF, but he refuses to deny or confirm the rumours.

“You do not need to be a rocket scientist to see that my nationalist position is closer to Zanu PF than the MDC,” he said. “For instance, I would never support a military embargo on my country because that threatens our national security. I will never ever support an arms embargo on Zimbabwe that weakens our military and compromises our national security and leaves us exposed like a banana republic.

“The Zanu PF ideals are the ideals that all Zimbabweans identify with, all rational and well meaning Zimbabweans identify with. The problem is that some of these ideals have been compromised… compromised by individuals in pursuit of self interest.

“People must understand the nature of my differences with Zanu PF. The fact that many of the people who were associated with my departure are making such a contribution today surely must indicate that there is something interesting there.

“It would be preposterous for anyone to think that Patrick Chinamasa (Justice Minister) is my enemy, but there he is – in the thick of things in government. It would be unrealistic, unreasonable and absurd to suggest that he is my enemy, because he has never been. I can say that with many others who are in Zanu PF.”

Moyo’s critics are holding onto his statement that he would never rejoin Zanu PF to accuse him of flip-flopping.

When asked last year by SW Radio’s Violet Gonda why he should be taken seriously when he has changed positions at least twice – from being a government critic to a government minister, then back to opposing the government – Moyo likened himself to Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga.

He retorted: “Raila Odinga over the last three years has been in NDP, in LDP, in KANU to the point of seeking the presidency of KANU, out of KANU into NAK, out of NAK, back working with KANU in the Orange Democratic Movement. That's why the process in that country is more dynamic and much more promising.”

On Tuesday, he still would not rule out returning to Zanu PF – despite his vow never to return.