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Moyo warns Zanu PF could lose poll
By
Staff Reporter
ZIMBABWE'S
former Information Minister Professor Jonathan Moyo has warned the ruling
Zanu PF could lose the parliamentary elections scheduled for Thursday.
Moyo who is standing as an independent candidate in Tsholotsho constituency also predicts Zanu PF which has ruled the country for 25 years will crumble in the next few years if it fails to move and deal with "deadwood" within its ranks.
The 48-year-old academic turned politician said: "We are a young, dynamic society led by an old, stagnant clique."
Moyo said Zanu PF could lose even with vote-rigging because of its decreasing popularity in rural areas and the growing organisational sophistication of the opposition. He said Mugabe's stated goal of winning two-thirds of the contested seats was virtually unreachable because the party's message had "grown vague and muddled".
"It's quite possible Zanu PF could lose these elections," Moyo told the Washington Post on Saturday. "The democratic experience is working in Zimbabwe. . . . The people in Zimbabwe are understanding what democracy means. Zimbabwe will be transformed democratically. I have no doubt about that."
Moyo refused to comment on the accusations of coup-plotting, but he described the party he served for five years as aging, undemocratic, riven by internal disputes, filled with "deadwood" and likely to fall from power over the next several years.
Moyo, a former political science professor educated partly in Southern California, is trim and tall. On Friday, he wore rimless glasses, black shoes and a black cowboy hat. His shirt, also black and featuring a picture of himself, bore the slogan "Vote Prof. Jonathan Moyo."
Yet despite Moyo's effort to return to power through Thursday's balloting, his credentials as a supporter of democracy have repeatedly been questioned by both ruling party figures and members of the opposition.
During his tenure as information minister, human rights groups rated Zimbabwe's government as one of the most hostile in the world to press freedoms. He banned foreign correspondents from reporting without explicit official approval and crafted a law that imposed a two-year prison sentence on any journalist who slipped into the country.
| As for his supposed tears during the meeting with Mugabe, Moyo declined to confirm the account but said, "It might be a reflection on his cruelty. . . . Is his office a torture chamber?" |
On Wednesday, Mugabe traveled to Tsholotsho to publicly attack Moyo as an opponent of both the ruling party and democracy. During the same appearance, Mugabe also suggested that Moyo had plotted a coup in his final days as information minister, meeting with senior military commanders and doing "terrible things."
The Chronicle, which Moyo once controlled, fixed on a potentially embarrassing detail in Mugabe's account: When Moyo was privately confronted with evidence of his duplicity, the president said, "tears started flowing down his cheeks."
In an interview with the Washington Post, Moyo stopped short of denying a coup plot. He acknowledged that as information minister he had often met with senior military commanders. Asked whether they had discussed a coup, he said, "I will not dignify any of that stuff with any comment right now."
As for his supposed tears during the meeting with Mugabe, Moyo declined to confirm the account but said, "It might be a reflection on his cruelty. . . . Is his office a torture chamber?"
While Moyo is regarded within Zimbabwe's political community as a brainy ideological chameleon, he insisted in the interview that he had not changed his views. He joined the ruling party, he said, at a time when it was open to democratic reforms after nearly losing to the opposition in 2000. He left this year, he insisted, after becoming convinced that the party was reverting to its old, undemocratic ways.
Whatever the truth, Moyo's treatment of his home town during his years in power has the look of a plan.
Like most of rural southern Zimbabwe, Tsholotsho was neglected after Mugabe took power in 1980. Unemployment is estimated at 80 percent. Many young adults are idle or have left to find work in South Africa or Botswana. Food is in short supply.
But unlike most towns its size, Tsholotsho has a paved road to the nearest city. It has electrical lines and street lights. The schools have computers. Many here say all this was Moyo's doing.
"I like his deeds, tar road, tower lights, and bore [water] holes," said Rhoda Sibanda, 48, who was walking down Tsholotsho's single paved street Friday wearing a Moyo campaign shirt. "It was just dust and gravel before."
Although Zanu PF has made a strong push to beat Moyo, the former minister also faces a candidate from the main opposition party, the incumbent, in a three-way contest. Many voters say that whatever Moyo did while in government, he may have less to offer as an independent member of parliament.
But others are convinced that Moyo has grander plans. A loose coalition of several independent candidates has formed in this election season, and barring a decisive victory, one or both of the major parties could eventually split, creating space for a new force -- perhaps with Moyo at its head.
If Moyo wins, it would help position him for the future, analysts said. But to win, he may have to overcome his former party's propensity for cheating. Outside observers widely denounced the 2000 and 2002 elections as tainted. Mugabe has made clear his desire to be rid of Moyo, and in 25 years of power, Mugabe has usually won his fights.
Asked whether Mugabe's party might tamper with the Tsholotsho vote on Thursday, Moyo looked puzzled.
"I don't know,"
he said. "I hope not."
Additional reporting Washington Post
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