Mugabe 'frightened' of own spin doctor, Moyo

Mugabe 'frightened' of own spin doctor, Moyo

MOYO: In hot water

• Mugabe's own Joseph Goebbels

• Mnangagwa suffers crushing political defeat

• Mugabe says Zanu PF divided

• Mugabe wants female deputy

• Mnangagwa outsmarted in race for State House

• 'President Mnangagwa will be Zanu PF's Waterloo'

• Moyo clashes with Shamuyarira over Sky

• Nkomo declares war on 'saboteurs and infiltrators'

• Zanu PF editor at war with Moyo

• Moyo escapes censure as Mugabe drags feet

• Moyo, and the art of beautiful propaganda

• Moyo splashes cash in race for Tsholotsho

• Moyo for President?

• Moyo bars foreign cricket journalists

• Moyo orders Sky News crew out

• Matsanga deported in Sky News row

• Sky News debacle tears Zanu PF apart

• Moyo orders Sky News out, again

• Moyo 'to fill jails with lying journalists'

• Zanu PF set to grill Moyo

• Mugabe's spin doctor spends millions on album launch

• Moyo sings for his supper

• Mugabe's spin doctor eyes presidency

• Zanu PF at war over Mugabe's successor

• Deported Mugabe ally calls Moyo 'gay rant'

By Staff Reporter

PROFESSOR Jonathan Moyo's political career was on the brink this weekend after President Robert Mugabe said he was "frightened by his thrust to defy the party".

Moyo who has been trying to build himself a personal fiefdom in his rural home area - Tsholotsho district - has previously clashed with the Zanu PF oldguard but appeared to retain Mugabe's trust, until this weekend.

Moyo, a former university lecturer and arch critic of Robert Mugabe assumed the role of chief spin doctor for the 80-year-old Zimbabwean tyrant in 2000.

Speaking in Bulawayo on Friday, Mugabe vowed to deal severely with Moyo, and six Zanu PF provincial heads who attended a function Moyo organised in Tsholotsho about a fortnight ago, allegedly to scuttle the nomination of Water Resources and Infrastructural Development Minister Joyce Mujuru as one of Zanu PF’s two vice presidents.

“The six provincial chairpersons, including the organisers are guilty of holding an unsanctioned party meeting. The name Tsholotsho has become good and evil," thundered an irate Mugabe. "At first we thought the professor was getting the resources, wherever they come from, to improve the area, but what is now frightening us now is this thrust to defy the party.”

Three of the troubled provincial leaders – Jacob Mudenda (Matabeleland North), Themba Ncube (Bulawayo) and suspended Matabeleland South’s Lloyd Siyoka – had a torrid time answering the President, who asked them one by one why they had attended Moyo’s function.

“Were you invited in your personal capacities or as party chairpersons? This was an illegal meeting which we as a party did not sanction,” said Mugabe.

When asked who had invited him, Mudenda said he had been invited by "the professor", to which Mugabe sought clarification: “Which professor? We have so many professors in the country.”

An unsettled Mudenda replied that he was referring to Moyo.

Provincial leaders from Masvingo, Midlands and Manicaland and at least one provincial governor from outside the province also attended the Tsholotsho function, to which the Speaker of Parliament, Emmerson Mnangagwa had also been invited but failed to attend.

The six were allegedly backing Mnangagwa and women’s league boss Thenjiwe Lesabe for the two vice-presidents’ posts, and Patrick Chinamasa for the position of party national chairman.

Despite the alleged machinations, Mujuru was nominated to be vice-presidenct. Mugabe asked Mnangagwa whether he was behind the plot against Mujuru.

“I was only invited by the professor to officiate in Tsholotsho. What surprised me is that the man has been lambasting me in the press, but all of a sudden he decided to invite me,” Mnangagwa said.

Mnangagwa alleged that Moyo had hired a plane to take a delegation including Chinamasa, himself and Transport and Communications Minister Chris Mushohwe to Tsholotsho.

However, Mushohwe had failed to travel and gave Mnangagwa $10 million to donate to Inyane School, Tsholotsho. However, following the calling of an emergency Politburo meeting, Mnangagwa had failed to travel.

“I received a call from the President saying that there was an urgent meeting I was supposed to attend,” he said. The meeting was to discuss, among other things, that people were demanding a secret ballot for the nomination for the Presidency; women representation; and that they did not want the provincial executives to vote.

“I phoned the professor and told him that ‘you are also wanted at the meeting’,” Mnangagwa told Mugabe.

However, Moyo was already on his way to Tsholotsho. Earlier in the morning, rival party factions had traded insults as they waited for Mugabe to arrive at the Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo International Airport.

One faction sympathised with former Zipra intelligence chief and former Cabinet minister Dumiso Dabengwa and the other by Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans’ Association leader (ZNLWVA), Jabulani Sibanda.

The Dabengwa camp, which was apparently in charge of proceedings at the airport, broke into song and dance as soon at Mugabe’s plane touched down, denouncing the Sibanda faction and supporting Mujuru’s nomination to the vice presidency.
Additional reporting Daily Mirror
JOIN THE DEBATE ON THIS ARTICLE ON THE NEWZIMBABWE.COM FORUMS
newsdesk@newzimbabwe.com