Zanu PF moves to thwart Moyo in Tsholotsho

Zanu PF moves to thwart Moyo in Tsholotsho

MOYO

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• Chinotimba faces axe over Tsholotsho

• Chronicle deserts Moyo, says Daily News to return

• Moyo set for Zanu PF exit

• Jonathan Moyo dropped from Zanu PF central committee

• Moyo: A cancer Zanu PF cannot deal with

• Mugabe summons Chronicle editor

• Moyo clashes with Shamuyarira over Sky

• Nkomo declares war on 'saboteurs and infiltrators'

• Zanu PF editor at war with Moyo

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• Zanu PF at war over Mugabe's successor

By Staff Reporter

ZANU PF has put the final nail in the coffin of Information Minister Jonathan Moyo’s political career after it set new guidelines, which disqualify the rabid critic of the private media from contesting in the party’s primary elections to select candidates for next year’s parliamentary elections.

Moyo does not feature in any of the party’s structures from where candidates for the January 15 primary elections will be picked.

According to new guidelines announced Tuesday, only those in the central committee, national consultative assembly and provincial executives are eligible for elections.

President Robert Mugabe has since said he would not appoint anyone into his Cabinet who has not been elected by the people.

The junior minister’s political fortunes have been waning after his name was deleted by the presidium from the list of central committee nominees from Matabeleland North, before he was subsequently dropped from the Politburo at the December 1 to 5 party congress.

His crime was the convening of the unsanctioned Tsholotsho meeting that attempted to scuttle the ascendancy of Joyce Mujuru into the party’s presidium, in favour of Speaker of Parliament Emmerson Mnangagwa.

Mnangagwa has since distanced himself from the plot, which would also have seen the removal of party vice-president Joseph Msika and chairman John Nkomo in favour of former women’s league boss Thenjiwe Lesabe and legal secretary Patrick Chinamasa, respectively.

Lesabe has since been relegated to a committee member in the politburo, while Chinamasa tumbled from the party’s highest decision-making body outside congress.

Although Moyo had become popular in his “home” constituency of Tsholotsho, which he had literally developed overnight, upgrading roads and providing public lighting, the meeting he held there with six provincial leaders and other “mini-heavies” from around the country has left him in a delicate situation.

The party has since suspended the six provincial chairmen and war veterans’ leader, Jabulani Sibanda, which renders them ineligible to contest the primary polls.

The six are: Masvingo chairman, Daniel Shumba, Manicaland’s Mike Madiro, Midlands’ July Moyo, Matabeleland North’s Jacob Mudenda, Lloyd Siyoka of Matabeleland South and Themba Ncube of Bulawayo.

Eccentric war veterans’ leader Joseph Chinotimba and former home affairs deputy minister Mabel Chinomona are also likely to be affected by the entry rules since they face disciplinary problems in their home provinces in the aftermath of the Tsholotsho meeting.

Chinomona has a pending case before the party’s national disciplinary committee, while the ruling party Harare provincial executive passed a vote of no-confidence in Chinotimba and former Harare mayor Tony Gara for their various roles in the unsanctioned meeting.

A number of other Zanu PF young “Turks” are also likely to be sidelined as a result of the party’s new guidelines, as the party rids itself of people perceived to be bent on destroying it from within.

"The waiver does not count for Moyo, who was only in Parliament by virtue of having been appointed by President Mugabe as a non-constituency Member of Parliament"

Zanu PF political commissar, Elliot Manyika yesterday said only provincial executive, national consultative and central committee members would be eligible to stand in the primaries, while outgoing parliamentarians who did not meet the set criteria and had no disciplinary cases against them are also in for possible re-election.

“Provincial executive members, national consultative members and central committee members are the only party members eligible to stand as party candidates in the 120 constituencies countrywide,” Manyika said, adding that interested members should submit their CVs through their district coordinating committees by this coming Sunday.

He added: “Outgoing Members of Parliament who do not meet the above criteria and have no disciplinary cases against them are eligible as well.”

However, the waiver does not count for Moyo, who was only in Parliament by virtue of having been appointed by President Mugabe as a non-constituency Member of Parliament.

Manyika last night said the waiver only related to “elected” MPs. Makonde MP Kindness Paradza, also finds himself in a precarious position since he has a case pending before the party’s national disciplinary committee for allegedly disrespecting party structures and the office of the President.

While Zanu PF’s secretary for information and publicity, Nathan Shamuyarira, has said Paradza has been cleared of the charges, the party’s provincial chairman for Mashonaland West, Phillip Chiyangwa, before his disappearance, insisted Paradza was still on suspension.

Political observers said there was no love lost between the erstwhile friends – Paradza and Chiyangwa. Paradza was arrested on Monday for allegedly inciting violence in his constituency against Leo Mugabe’s supporters, and was released on free bail yesterday.

Mugabe is the provincial secretary for information and publicity for troubled Mashonaland West province. Manyika added that all provinces would be required to set aside a third of their constituencies for women, in line with the party’s constitution as adopted during the party’s congress early this month.
Card-carrying members who could not hold positions in the party because of their employment in the civil service would only be allowed to contest the primaries after a waiver by the party’s national elections directorate.
Daily Mirror
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