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Mugabe's spin doctor spins out of government
By
Nelson Banya
THE mercurial Minister
of Information and Publicity, Jonathan Moyo, who has of late been balancing
on a political knife-edge, has resigned from President Robert Mugabe’s
government.
Impeccable sources told The Financial Gazette that Moyo, who was largely
expected to be axed by Presdient Mugabe, tendered his resignation to
Acting President Joyce Mujuru on Tuesday, following a sharp twist in
his political fortunes.
Speculation was rife that the government spin doctor, whose political fortunes are on the wane, has been offered a job in Namibia in an unspecified capacity, although this could not be independently verified.
However, the sources indicated that Mujuru had refused to accept the resignation, saying Moyo should wait for President Mugabe’s return from his vacation in the Far East.
“Moyo tendered his resignation on Tuesday to the Acting President, who declined it, saying she had not appointed him in the first place, so he should wait for the President’s return,” one source said.
The sources indicated that Moyo cited frustration with developments following the fateful Tsholotsho meeting of November 18 convened by him and attended by several ruling party leaders, where a plot was allegedly hatched to stymie Mujuru’s nomination for the ZANU PF vice-presidency.
Moyo, whose stock had risen significantly within ZANU PF and government circles mainly due to his vice-like grip on the state-controlled media, suffered a massive reversal of fortunes in the wake of the Tsholotshlo debacle.
President Mugabe, miffed by an unprecedented act of defiance within the party he has led across three decades, blocked Moyo’s central committee nomination and dropped him from the ZANU PF politburo.
His aspirations for the Tsholotsho constituency seat, which he has actively pursued for two years, were dealt a body blow this week when ZANU PF announced new rules which will effectively bar newcomers in the party, such as Moyo, from contesting in primary elections scheduled for January 15.
Formerly an arch-critic of President Mugabe and his ZANU PF government, Moyo made a sensational about-turn in 1999 when he spearheaded the government’s doomed constitutional reforms. He became the ZANU PF spokesman ahead of the watershed 2000 parliamentary election in which the ruling party faced stiff competition from the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).
Moyo, an academic who has a penchant for witticism and ruthless wordplay against his perceived antagonists, was rewarded with a Cabinet post by Presdient Mugabe in 2000 and was retained in subsequent reshuffles.
An erstwhile proponent of press freedom, Moyo waged a war of attrition against the independent media, masterminding the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act and the Broadcasting Services Act, through which three newspapers and a broadcasting house were forced out of business. Several journalists have also been arrested under the draconian media laws that have drawn widespread condemnation.
Moyo was also at the forefront of many of the ZANU PF government’s battles with the opposition, effectively using the public media in a relentless propaganda crusade meant to discredit the opposition. He also founded a series of partisan musical galas to commemorate various national days, while he sought to introduce a system of patronage in the music industry, principally through his much-maligned local content policy.
The hyperactive Moyo — known to work long hours — was widely perceived to have emerged as President Mugabe’s trusted strategist and confidante, until he miscalculated and, through the now infamous Tsholotsho Declaration, second-guessed Mugabe’s choice for the vice-presidency — Mujuru.
As pressure mounted following the Tsholotsho meeting, Moyo — who earned a politburo reprimand for his troubles — sought, unsuccessfully, to redeem himself.
“I have been a victim of that (misrepresentation) too many times and my heart bleeds because of that and the fact that the same has devastated my family, especially my two young children who are at a loss as to what is happening,” Moyo wrote in a report he prepared for the politburo, as repercussions were being visited on perceived Tsholotsho conspirators.
In the report, Moyo also sought to shed personal liability for the closure of the country’s biggest circulating independent daily, The Daily News.
“Today The Daily News is off the streets as a result of violation of laws that we have collectively enacted yet the truth is that some comrades here have conveniently distanced themselves from those laws and now I am personally held liable for the demise of The Daily News.”
Moyo has had highly publicised run-ins with senior ZANU PF politicians, some of whom were ridiculed in columns in the government press, widely believed to be penned by the minister, himself a previous author of acidic anti-government columns in the independent press.
Vice-President Joseph Msika, ZANU PF spokesperson Nathan Shamuyarira and national chairman John Nkomo all came out second-best after clashes with the information minister at the height of his power.
Moyo’s resignation would earn him a place among the few personalities to resign from Presdient Mugabe’s government.
Former finance and
industry ministers Simba Makoni and Nkosana Moyo, respectively, quit
on ethical grounds after sharp differences with hawks in Presdient Mugabe’s
Cabinet, while Edmund Garwe and Enos Chikowore were hounded out of office
by scandals.
Financial Gazette
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