Moyo savages Makoni's 'bizarre' presidential bid

Moyo savages Makoni's 'bizarre' presidential bid

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By Fikile Mapala

ZIMBABWE’S former information minister Professor Jonathan Moyo has launched a withering attack on independent presidential candidate, Simba Makoni, describing his election bid as “ridiculous” and “bizarre”.

Moyo, who is the independent MP for Tsholotsho constituency in Matabeleland North province, likened Makoni to a “bad doctor” giving a patient the wrong medicine after making the correct diagnosis.

Moyo said: “Simba Makoni is giving the people of Zimbabwe an independent candidate when what the people want is a united front of all progressive forces.”

The former Zanu PF government spokesman, speaking at the Harare Quill Club on Wednesday night, said although he had succeeded as an independent MP in Tsholotsho, he thought Makoni would not win as an independent in the March 29 elections.

He said: “I am an independent candidate myself and people would expect me to be saying very nice things about Simba Makoni. But I have not allowed myself to get carried away by that achievement. My situation is different because I don’t intend to form a government.”

Moyo said it is not ideal for a presidential candidate to be an independent and not be answerable to a formal political organisation or institution with checks and balances.

Moyo explained: “Politics is about being part of a group. A President cannot be stand alone. A President should be a member of a group with formal structures, obligations and principles. It’s different when you want to be an MP for a constituency like Tsholotsho.”

Moyo, a former Zanu PF politiburo member and respected academic, expressed concern at Makoni’s insistence that he did not need a political party because he was “in alliance with the people of Zimbabwe”.

He said: “When you say you are an independent and you are in alliance with the people of Zimbabwe, saying you will form a national authority, you scare some of us.”

Moyo said it was practically impossible for one individual to form an alliance with all the people adding that the claim was “ridiculous by definition”.

The Tsholotsho MP said the only people who were known to claim to be in alliance with the people are dictators who did not want to be answerable to a formal political grouping.

Moyo claimed that Makoni’s presidential bid was an informal way by disgruntled Zanu PF members of dealing with the succession issue after failing to outflank President Robert Mugabe from within the party.

He said the forthcoming presidential election was going to be a succession election in which all Zimbabweans would, by default, be involved in dealing with an issue that Zanu PF members had failed to resolve as a political party.

Moyo added that Makoni was not an alternative leader to Zimbabweans but only another leadership option for Zanu PF members who were opposed to Mugabe’s candidature.

He said: “Makoni is not much of an alternative. He is leading another faction in Zanu PF. Makoni is the leader of Zanu PF-B and Mugabe is leading Zanu PF-A.

“Makoni’s people have said they only want to change the bus driver. But Zimbabweans are saying they want more than that. They want a new driver and a damn new bus and maybe even a new destination.”

The political science professor said Makoni’s “third force” should not be confused with his long advocated “third way” as there was marked difference between the two.

He lamented that the Makoni project was an unaccountable shadowy third force with no organisational structures and lacking transparency which astonishingly expected to be treated seriously by the electorate.

Moyo said: “To tell us that you are a third force employing a military strategy to win elections in a modern society like ours and expect us to be impressed is to ask for too much. It’s not only old fashioned; it’s also a bizarre way of doing politics.”

Moyo also said he was concerned that some of the individuals spearheading the Makoni project were unrepentant former 5 Brigade operatives who had been involved in the senseless killing of innocent people in Matabeleland and Midlands provinces in the early 80’s during what is known as Gukurahundi.

Retired Major Kudzai Mbudzi, a top official in the Makoni project, as a member of the North Korean-trained 5 Brigade which was involved in the massacre of an approximated 20,000 people during the military incursion, it is claimed.

Moyo said: “Whoever said the devil you know is better than the devil you don’t know was speaking from experience. An opportunity to change things has been squandered. But I don’t think that an aspiring president standing as an independent represents much of an alternative.”

Moyo who said he had profound respect for Dumiso Dabengwa, said it was “unfortunate” that the former Zipra intelligence supremo had decided to be part of the Makoni project.

Makoni is up against President Robert Mugabe and opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, in key elections on March 29.
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