HARARE – President Robert Mugabe’s withering attack on Information, Media and Broadcasting Services minister Jonathan Moyo is a show of power by Zimbabwe’s long-ruling leader.
By throwing Moyo to the wolves in such a public and humiliating manner, Mugabe has reminded all and sundry that he is in firm control of the levers of power in Zanu PF and the country.
The nonagenarian leader launched a stinging attack on Moyo in Harare last Friday at the funeral wake of Zanu PF stalwart and former journalist Nathan Shamuyarira — who died aged 85 after a long illness.
“The views that he (Cde Shamuyarira, a former Information minister) put across (in) the paper were the views of the party that appealed to the people.
I am saying this in the light of what is happening now where you have our minister of Information wanting to put people one against another. It’s a matter we were discussing the day before yesterday (in the Politburo).
“You don’t do things like that; you want to build society — you put those who have principles in front and you don’t try to destroy them, no.
The right of the people, yes, we must protect them, their religion, their culture; the freedom of choice, yes, but that does not entitle us to condemn ourselves even after the glory of July 31, 2013.
“Intellectuals, don’t try to use your intellectual knowledge to deceive people. We are simple people, we want bread and butter. We are simple; we want honest leadership, the truth. Are you our leader, they will ask you the individual and all of you kana muchiita izvi?
“Ndiri kutaura izvi nekuti vese vakomana vakanga vakatungamirira mumapaper vakatandwa kuchinotorwa veMDC vachiiswa kuti imi makati tonho muchifunga kuti tine munhu arikutiitira zvakanaka, the devil incarnate,” Mugabe said.
No one had seen this coming, considering the fact that Mugabe has mostly shown decorum in dealing with delicate party and State matters over the past 34 years.
Indeed, he is not the type who blurts out ill-considered views in public, attacking his officials. This is why his broadside against Moyo is significant.
Also, very significant is the fact that before the Friday wake, the politburo had discussed Moyo and his perceived abuse of the State media against senior party officials and ministers.
So, is Moyo as good as fired? And how does the minister expect to maintain respect from colleagues and the public after being rebuked like this?
It does remain to be seen how the Zanu PF strategist will put on a brave face going forward when the man who hired him told the whole world that he is a “devil incarnate”.
And Mugabe twisted his life lethal knife in Moyo’s defenceless body a day later, during the burial of Shamuyarira, when he equated the embattled minister and some senior officials in Zanu PF to weevils.
But as stunning as the events of the past few days maybe to some people, they are not really a big surprise given recent Zanu PF dynamics.
Indeed, it would appear that Mugabe’s patience has been wearing thin with Moyo and others since the end of 2013 when the State media seemingly began launching a series of selective attacks on senior figures such as Presidential Affairs minister Didymus Mutasa.
In November, Mutasa was left bristling with anger after he was described as a “dwarf in a giant’s robes” in a stinging editorial in The Herald during the contentious Zanu PF provincial elections which were marred by allegations of cheating and vote-rigging.
“I think that is absolutely wrong, misusing the media and in certain instances when people behave that way, that is sometimes referred to as corruption.
“You don’t use your office to scandalise those who are not in the same office and those who cannot respond to those words,” Mutasa retorted then.
“You see, when you refer to us as dwarfs in huge robes, how do you expect me to answer? Because I am not in charge of any newspaper. I can only go to newspapers to answer, but which newspaper will I use if my own newspaper refers to me that way.”
On April 2, Moyo appeared to hit back at Mugabe who had warned the State media against blacklisting former Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) governor Gideon Gono, after the president had visited Gono at his farm near Norton.
“They say some people are on the blacklist and the blacklist comes from the ministry. Why should we have a blacklist as if it’s a credit facility?” Moyo told journalists at the inaugural meeting of the Independent Media Panel of Inquiry (IMPI) in Harare.
“I was shocked when my good friend, the former governor (Gono) suggested there are people who don’t want him covered. He told the president something to that effect.
“If the one who is alleging it is lying, the media should tell that person he was lying . . . In jest, I thought he can’t say that because he has his own newspaper, why not go to that newspaper?”
On May 25, Moyo was quoted in The Sunday Mail announcing amendments to the indigenisation law under a massive headline, “Govt in major climbdown”.
A day later, The Sunday Mail’s stablemate, The Herald, sought to minimise the damage by attacking The Sunday Mail, alleging that there were no such amendments.
Indigenisation minister Francis Nhema also dismissed Moyo’s assertions a few days later and was supported by the Zanu PF politburo which sat to discuss the proposals at its meeting last Wednesday.
And last week proved almost fatal for Moyo!
Receiving some obscure tourism awards from the European Council on Tourism and Trade on June 4, Mugabe showered Tourism and Hospitality minister Walter Mzembi with praise for his hard work which had been instrumental in Zimbabwe earning the awards.
Two important things happened then.
Firstly, The Herald did not publish pictures of Mugabe and Mzembi receiving the awards, yet the private media, often addressed disparagingly in official circles, covered the awards extensively.
And Mugabe’s fulsome praise of Mzembi’s feats was also not covered in The Herald, while the private press and some online publications reported on this wringing endorsement of the tourism minister extensively.
Against this background, it is possible to locate and surmise Mugabe’s anger and his subsequent vitriolic attack on Moyo.
It is also possible to argue that this, in reality, has nothing to do with Zanu PF’s much talked about succession wars!
Yet still, it is also possible that Mugabe, by savaging Moyo so publicly and humiliatingly, has merely used the proverbial tactic of attacking the dog to smoke out its owner.
And if that view is correct, then it may be a matter of time before “the owner” is revealed!
But what is not an issue or up for debate in all this is that the power in Zanu PF firmly resides with Mugabe, with his attack on Moyo a strong reminder to those who doubted him due to advanced age and deteriorating health that he is still “the man” in Zanu PF and the government.
The next few days and weeks will certainly be very interesting to watch for political observers as all players in this intriguing saga play their cards in this deadly tango.
COMMENTS
Looks like Shamuyarira died at the right time for Mugabe. Well, they (zanu heroes) all seem to do so. If Bob has something itchy to say, we all seem to gather at the heroes acre, just in time.
Jonathan should test his own medicine. He is so stupid enough. He helped ZANU a lot to destroy zim economy he shouldn’t cry fowl. Mugabe is a football player he uses dribbling skills to play his politics .
No such thing as power residing where you say. First did Moyo not know the consequences of not covering the Tourism awards from the so called obscure European Body? Moyo understands how his adopted party reveres protocol and could he not know what he was doing? I think he was exerspreated by the president’s inaction in many public instences of corruption in parastatals and he decided to poke the tiger and see if it was indeed alive. If that was his aim them he discovered that “indeeed’ the TIGER was alive and well. Now if he did it to see the lethality of the tiger he begins to wonder whether the tiger is now selective and only attacks zebras and is afraid of Gazzelles and buffaloes that have been passing over its mouth lately. If this is the case Moyo wonders why HE did not react in the same way in dealing with the corruption that rocked the media recently. Because it was discovered by MOyo? So what is Moyo’s crime? The answer that logically comes is that he exposed corruption in his own ministry..which led to intelligent people reasoning that waht was happening kwamainini must also be happening kwaNyachide (other parastatals). The corruption was so rampant that in a NORMAL progressive society it would have led to mass rioting…and My Moyo would have been awarded the Award of Geoff Nyarota (Willogate uncovering)….and award we should have….and Nyarota must be a National Hero for his distiguished service in preventing corrupt activities..together with Moyo who has now exposed the sizzling SALARYGATE whose depth remains unknown, probable because the powers that be stopped the investigation that was tarnishing the image of the party. These heroes will never be buried at the so called Heroes acre because they refused to endorse the party’s position on these matters. Of course Moyo has an axe to grind with the PUBLIC of zimbabwe for creating AIPPA, POSA etc and keeping the ZANU PF cobra alive and biting (ZANU should also make Moyo a Hero for letting them have another lease of life when all was lost in 2008, but these guys are always so so ungrateful and even…) In the light of these logical positions it stands to say the president was no necessarily speaking from a power position but frpm vindictive exesperation and helplessness at so many problemems coming from so many directions and being caused by so many big big old ADULTS who behave like people at a circus. Some are misbehaving and other are reporting the family misbeahavoir in public. Zimbabwe Inc. as a private company should have company secrets where govt officials can abuse office without fear of exposure – but then Zimbabwe Inc is not a closed organization, but needs the very same public for it to stay in power. No wonder HE was so so grieved…not so much by Nathan’s death as by the confusion that grown up…very grown up….in fact overgrown people bring to a good president who is trying to keep the big luxury yatch afloat. So now where will Moyo go from here? We thought we knew Moyo many times and in we were proved wrong in as many times, weren’t we? Does even HE understand Moyo. His vitriolic attack, uncharacteristic of his normal composure is a clear sign that eve HE doesn’t understand Jona. I think I do. Jonathan is an OPEN academic who can Author and essay and later see that there were flaws in his essay…or that the essay was wrong after all…or it needs revision to take account of current trends. Every academic worth his salt does not stick to his guns….but knows that reality REALITY changes with time. What is reality? Whose reality? Moyo has seen the need for Change in some areas….may be to attract FDI etc. Why doubt the ZANU PF Mazzinni. Mazinni was not a homegrown ZANU PF cadre, but a freelancer with the vision….and he is doing just that. Do you expect the High Priest to behave like a commoner. Moyo cannot behave like ZANU PF because he was Never Zanu Pf for Christssake! He is a hired prophet….or Tsikamutanda! Can you demand loyalty from TSIKAMUTANDA. You may do it at your own peril. Tsikamutanda will have the last laugh in the unfolding scenario because he has got a long vision. Mark my words! I personally admire Moyo….not that I like his morals….but the intrigue reads like a James Bond novel to a bored man! WE are watching things unfold. This is only the beginning!!
You are damn wrong accountant if HE is Peter Ndlovu then Johno is Lionel Messi. Moyo is merely writing his thesis and all the players are merely objects to admire or ridicule as the essay sees fit. Even HE is just a part of the esteemed professor’s essay…the Essay of Moyo the Academic. Moyo can define reality and can provoke change to suit that reality or to expose those whose reality has gone askance with the times. He is the master of exosure and intrigue. Even now he has achieved his goal Number 1: To find whether HE is committed to change to meet people’s economic and social needs. Now after the vicious verbal attack he can make his conclusions….the conclusions of a participant observer. Not even Howard Becker or Bronislaw Malonowski, the masters of participant observation can come near to this prefect artist. From and academic viewpoint and as an academic i feel compelled to admire Prof’s skills. However maybe we may quiz him on the ethicality of his methodology where he should have used guinea pigs instead of real humam beings, but then the frontiers of knowledge are temporal and continue to unravel. I did not do POLAD but I missed a lot because I didn”t have the opportunity to encounter the esteemed professor in action. Now that you have been ‘discovered’ prof can you risk palyong with the hounds. I would love to see back in the Varsity..where you unquestionably belong. I am dead serious prof. Come back to university and share what you have. We need you more here in the ACADEMIA because you are a guru. Leave the RIVER to the CROCODILES!!! For God’s sake!!
Talk of playing to the gallery!
He may be intelligent but lacks morals. I don’t give a damn what happens to Jonso after subjecting us to Hondo yeminda or whatever song it was!!!
Jonathan Moyo arikumboifeeler ZANU(PF) after destroying ZBC together with the accused thieve and ZANU activist Happyson Muchechetere. Hezvoko ZANU vanhu vasingafungi kubatsira madara by voting him out. You are all destroying ZANU from within and the future generations. Asi mari yema Civil Servants musashotese. Ini na Tsvangirai tinobva tatora nyika through the back door. Try it and you will see. Chinamasa ask Cde Biti to help you or engage him as your consultant.