Moyo escapes censure as Mugabe drags feet

Moyo escapes censure as Mugabe drags feet

MOYO

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By Brian Mangwende

INFORMATION Minister Jonathan Moyo could go “scot free” as it emerged this week that Vice President Joseph Msika and ZANU PF’s national chairman John Nkomo have pulled out of the special committee formed to investigate complaints against Moyo’s alleged public attacks on the party’s bigwigs.

Initially, the high-powered committee that was set up by the ruling party’s supreme decision body-the Politburo-comprised President Robert Mugabe as chair with Msika and Nkomo as committee members.

But, Msika and Nkomo’s pull out leaves, President Mugabe alone to deal with the man he thrust into his cabinet to head the government’s propaganda department in 2000 and later into Parliament as a non-constituency legislator before placing the former Mugabe critic was thrust into the Politburo.

Party insiders this week said Msika and Nkomo, who of late had become prime targets of Moyo’s bitter attacks against ZANU PF’s old guard, refused to be placed on their defence against Moyo.

The sources also claimed that as soon as the decision to haul him before the committee was finalised, Moyo, who is considered a provocative loose tongue within the ruling party’s rank and file, prepared a 30-page document in his defence.

“The Vice President (Msika) and the national chairman (Nkomo) have refused to be humiliated by the President and Moyo,” the source said. “Indications are that President Mugabe has been left alone to deal with Moyo. Msika and Nkomo believe that Mugabe should come out in the open because many people are saying Moyo is hiding behind him and that is where he is getting the power to attack senior members of the party.” According to the source, Msika and Nkomo—who is also the ruling party’s disciplinary chairman and Minister of Lands, Land Reform and Resettlement—were angered by President Mugabe’s inaction after the pair was attacked in the public media despite several calls to reprimand the mercurial Moyo.

“The two are breathing fire over failure by the President to step in because nobody really knows where he (Moyo) is deriving his power from,” the source said.

However, another party insider thought otherwise. The insider who preferred to remain anonymous said it was not up to President Mugabe to discipline Moyo, but the disciplinary committee chaired by the national chairman who is widely perceived as a no-nonsense man, but whose indecision to deal with Moyo has baffled many.

Asked the source: “Why are they (Msika and Nkomo) bothering President Mugabe? Has the national chairman failed to haul Moyo before a disciplinary hearing. As a matter of fact, the problem lies with Msika and Nkomo for failing to take charge and discipline Moyo if found guilty of breaking the party’s code of conduct.” Moyo’s diatribe on the presidium and his boss Nathan Shamuyarira sparked a chorus of angry voices from the ruling party’s old guard including retired ex-army chief Solomon Mujuru who is reported to have lost his cool over the firebrand minister way back in 2001 and considers him a “Johnny-come-late” or Mafikizolo.

Speaking to the Sunday Mirror on Sunday, Msika denied having pulled out of the high-powered committee, but indicated that President Mugabe was dragging his feet in dealing with Moyo.

“The President said we would meet over the issue, but nothing has since materialised.” Another source said Msika’s and Nkomo’s withdrawal from the disciplinary panel could further loosen the tie that binds the ruling party and further split the party. So far, Moyo has clashed with vice president Msika over the Kondozi debacle which saw thousands of farm being made redundant following the property’s acquisition by the Agricultural Rural Development Authority.

He fought Shamuyarira over the invitation of the Sky Television news crew that eventually interviewed President Mugabe to tell the world the Zimbabwean story.

Then Moyo, the architect of the much-despised Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act went for Nkomos’ scalp over the issuance of withdrawal letter in the continuous multiple farm ownership series. Efforts to get comments from Nkomo and the ruling party’s information chief Nathan Shamuyarira proved fruitless at the time of going to press.
Sunday Mirror
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