Source: Moyo’s presidential bid divides opposition – DailyNews Live
Tendai Kamhungira 30 June 2017
HARARE – Former Industry and International Trade minister Nkosana Moyo
announced yesterday that he will run for president in 2018, but his
presidential bid has been met with whispers of disapproval, especially
from civic society leaders who are concerned about the possibility of
splitting the opposition vote.
Moyo, who was appointed in President Robert Mugabe’s Cabinet in July 2000
but resigned in May 2001 after publicly speaking out against attacks on
businesses and factories by war veterans, claimed during a press briefing
in Harare that the call for him to run for president came from members of
“virtually all political formations.”
“I have concluded that the vehicle for my candidacy has to be a people’s
movement. This is after all about the people’s agenda. Working with some
of you, the vehicle that we have settled on is Alliance for the People’s
Agenda,” he said, adding that he is offering himself as one of the best
presidential options in next year’s elections, where he would stand as an
independent candidate.
Moyo dispelled fears that he could divide the votes in the same way former
Finance minister Simba Makoni did in 2008, where he garnered eight percent
of the vote to deny MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai an outright win.
Moyo, who is against the idea of forming a coalition against Mugabe, said
such an arrangement is not feasible.
“Combining things does not always give you the result that you expect,” he
said, giving an example of mixing petrol and water.
The former World Bank’s International Finance Corporation staffer added:
“We are offering a leadership option that all Zimbabweans will be proud to
join. We are not therefore going to be part of a formation which is set
out to be confrontational with any grouping of Zimbabweans. The only issue
at stake is that of the appropriate leadership for the job that needs to
be done at this point in the life of our nation.”
The former banker with Standard Chartered Bank said it is time for Mugabe
to relinquish power.
“Personally I believe President Mugabe has run his leg of the relay and I
think we need to respect him for that, we need to respect him for the
contribution he has made, but we actually need to persuade him to
understand that there comes a time when a disciplined participant in a
relay has to hand over the baton to the next runner, in order for the
total team to succeed,” he said.
“There’s a whole generation of young people who have not known anything
other than this abnormal situation.”
Civil rights activist, Gladys Hlatywayo, said while it was well within
Moyo’s democratic rights to run for president, she was not too sure
whether that was a strategic position to take given the magnitude of
challenges Zimbabweans face in their quest to dislodge the 37 year rule of
Mugabe.
“It leaves me to question in whose interest is his candidature. At a time
efforts are being made for a coalition, one would have thought he was
going to work with the current opposition players. It’s more strategic to
have one opposition presidential candidate in the 2018 election in-order
not to split the vote,” she said.
Reacting to Moyo’s presidential bid yesterday, Zanu PF said the
65-year-old economist who is the executive chairman and founder of the
Mandela Institute for Development Studies, stands no chance against Mugabe
at next year’s polls.
“…He must consider himself a very lucky man by all accounts if gets 500
votes and that’s because unlike President Mugabe’s candidature, his isn’t
based on any sound policy or any thought-out plan and much less any
tangible support base. It is based merely and purely on social media. And
in Zimbabwean politics, as he will soon enough find out, that is a
suicidal thing to do,” said Psychology Maziwisa, the former Zanu PF
director of information and now legislator for Highfield West.
Jacob Mafume of the People’s Democratic Party said it would appear that
the silly season of Zimbabwean politics is upon the country.
“The issue is that the main political parties are taking too long to form
a coalition leaving gaps that can be exploited. The issue is not to pursue
ideology but to create a platform to remove Mugabe,” he said.
MDC spokesman, Obert Gutu, said their party was a social democratic
political party that believes in multi-party democracy.
He said the MDC’s real political adversary remains Zanu PF and are not at
all concerned by Moyo’s candidacy.
“We are a seasoned political party with massive grassroots support and
tried and tested policies and programmes. Our record during the inclusive
government clearly proved that we have got what it takes to deliver
Zimbabwe to the next level,” said Gutu.
“Politics is a game of numbers and strategies. In a free and fair
election, no other political party in Zimbabwe can beat us. We are the
real dealt he only game in town,” added Gutu.
COMMENTS
I don’t think any serious political party would really lose sleep about Prof Moyo, at least for now especially taking him from his own word which I believe whole-heartedly for now. Clearly my take on Prof Moyo, for now, is that he is testing some academic hypothesis of sort – taking it from his stated non-party politics stands. So, yes, come election he may pick a few voters, but certainly will not do much in terms of determining who gets majority of votes, it is still the voters. Just like Simba, yes he picked a few votes but certainly the person who got majority vote remains openly known. Unfortunately he was simply denied his right to assume the throne by the openly known shenanigans, which were openly played anyway. but people had loudly spoken. I therefore don’t see anything bad with the Nkosana, Joice, etc contesting for presidency if they so wish. The evil is in the shenanigans that we all know about. I think, what are all of us, especially the contestants should be prepared to do is to make sure that whoever wins the race is allowed to take the Gold medal? Unfortunately, in Zim so far we have seen the opposite – and may be the reason some people are so suspicious of any new entrant contestants. But I still think genuine competition is good. I can tell you I used to admire mudhara Egypt Dzinemunhenzva for his courage to contest Mugabe at the height of his power. To me the guy was simply saying “no one has a divine right to be president, I for one poor as I may look can also be one if chosen by the people”. That, to me was a powerful message. In short, I have no problem with genuine and open contestation – but of coz I have a very opposite view regarding zanu pf projects masquerading as democratic movement; and for obvious reasons of course.
moyo is rightfully informed and has the brain capacity to turn Zimbabwe around than Tsvangison… Tsvangison should allow for new opposition to be formed and him using his grassroot support to usher a new wave of ideas… four times of trying is a failure… and us Zimbabwean allowing to stand as the coalition leader is a failure on its own … similar to allowing MUgabe overstaying …
NEW IDEAS .. NEW PIPO
You just comment on what u have not ready making a fool of yourself. I can seen your hand moves faster than your brain.