Zanu PF succession war plays out in court

Zanu PF succession war plays out in court

• Tsholotsho saga: the untold story (part 3)

• Tsholotsho saga: the untold story (part 2)

• Tsholotsho saga: the untold story (part 1)

• Moyo: I'm Zimbabwe's Odinga

• Zanu PF expels war veterans leader

• Ministers back Moyo defamation suit

• Moyo calls on Mugabe to quit

• Jonathan Moyo: Why Mugabe should go now

• Moyo says Mugabe engaged in 'sunset politics'

• Ministers say Moyo plotted against Mugabe

• Moyo's diplomatic passport seized

• Moyo: 'Government has no business in newspapers'

• Moyo writing memoirs

• PROFILE: JONATHAN NATHANIEL MOYO

• Full text of Moyo's reply to dismissal from government

• Moyo slams Zanu PF 'politics of patronage'

• Mugabe drops Moyo from Cabinet

• Mugabe's spin doctor quits, goes independent

• Moyo bombshell: Gukurahundi killed my dad

By Lebo Nkatazo

ZANU PF's internecine succession struggle is expected to come to the fore Tuesday when a court hears arguments over a defamation suit filed by former information minister Jonathan Moyo against Zanu PF national chairman John Nkomo and politburo member Dumiso Dabengwa.

The $2 billion lawsuit is a culmination of a power struggle that rocked the ruling party in 2004 ahead of its congress in which two camps -- one loyal to Emmerson Mnangagwa and the other to Solomon Mujuru -- battled to have their candidates fill the post of vice president left vacant following the death of Simon Muzenda.

The Mujuru camp won that bout after Zanu PF members were arm twisted to endorse Joice Mujuru at the back of suspension of six provincial chairmen who had thrown their weight behind Mnangagwa's candidature.

Moyo has indicated in court papers that he would call TWENTY FOUR witnesses including one of his closest allies while in government, Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa, war veteran Joseph Chinotimba, a civil servant in the ministry of information and Zanu PF members in Tsholotsho to vouch for him that he never plotted to dislodge President Robert Mugabe and other member of the presidency, an allegation he claims was spread by the two ruling party members he will face in court.

However, a source in Moyo's legal team said while they listed 24 witnesses during the discovery process in court, they did not have to call all of them.

The source said: "We certainly do not intend to do that because there is no legal point in having 24 people repeating one and the same thing. I suspect that we might call between three and five witnesses.

"Also, the focus of the case is what was said by Nkomo and Dabengwa at a Zanu PF DCC meeting on January 12, 2005 in Tsholotsho and not what happened on November 18, 2004 at the speech and prize giving day at Dinyane High School, Tsholotsho.

"This means it might not be necessary to call any witness about the Dinyane meeting because Nkomo and Dabengwa deny that they said a coup plot was hatched at Dinyane and as such there is no point in focusing on something they are denying therefore must be agreeing it is not true that there was a coup plot. Our focus will be to prove that they alleged there was a coup plot and that this allegation was defamatory."

Nkomo and Dabengwa claim that Moyo was never defamed. They also contend that they never said the Tsholotsho MP, who angered Mugabe by entering the 2005 Parliamentary race an independent, had hatched a "coup", as he claims.

Those cited as witnesses by the two include, Bulawayo governor Cain Mathema and his wife Musa Mathema who stood against Moyo together with an MDC candidate and lost.

The case will be heard at the Bulawayo High Court.
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