via Moyo fails to turn up – DailyNews 27 June 2014 by Chengetai Zvauya
HARARE – Jonathan Moyo, minister of Media, Information and Broadcasting Services yesterday, failed to appear before a parliamentary portfolio committee to answer questions about the arrest of the Sunday Mail editor Edmund Kudzayi and realignment of media laws.
Moyo was invited by the Media, Information and Broadcasting Services parliamentary committee to give oral evidence. The lawmakers in the committee were disappointed by the non-appearance of Moyo at the scheduled hearing.
Zanu PF MP for Umzigwane William Dhewa, who chairs the portfolio committee, said they had received communication from the Clerk of Parliament Austin Zvoma that Moyo would not be pitching up.
“We were informed that the minister is not coming today as he has other engagements but we are still demanding that he appears before us and we expect him next week,” Dhewa told the Daily News.
Another member of the committee, James Maridadi, the MDC legislator for Mabvuku, said the MPs were looking forward to Moyo’s appearance before the committee.
He said there were a lot of issues happening in the media that the committee had a keen interest in.
“I am very disappointed that the minister did not come to explain the issue of Kudzayi, where he came from,” Maridadi said.
“We have information that he has no experience in journalism but in Information Communication Technology (ICT) yet he was made an editor of a state newspaper at the tender age of 28. I know what I am talking about because I am a journalist by profession and you cannot become an editor at such a young age.
COMMENTS
Preposterous!!! How can parliament expect him to appear before them? Jonathan Moyo is busy packing his bags. The only difference is that he does not know where to run to. He tried to run to Tendai Biti’s outfit and found no protection there. He could not try the Welshman outfit because Welshman is hibernating. He tried Emerson Mnangagwa’s posh mansion in Zvishavane and he could not find joy their either as Ngwena and his nephew Mbarayekwa were too scared to give him sanctuary. Chinenga took the unusual step to warn him not to come him. He is also afraid of the Bird who has suddenly been unleashed on him. He fears taking to his houseboat in Kariba. Jonathan suddenly has no friends. It is time for jonathan to go and drown himself in the sea if he can at all get there.
Its you who is preposterous making all these silly speculations about J Moyo’s. Its not parliament’s prerogative to dismiss a Minister it is left to the dictator Robert Mugabe. But parliament has the right to talk to ministers for example to explain themselves. Its equally preposterous for J Moyo to ignore parliament when he is summoned by them. Especially when he has to answer for either his actions or those outside his office ie the one that the notorious Attorney General asked for, the imprisonment of an editor of a Zanu PF mouthpiece.
Kudzayi was a proxy. He wasn’t Jukwa, nor was he the real editor of the Sunday Mail. Alum Mpofu was another example of a ventriloquist’s dummy that fell to bits in a spectacular fashion. Someone obviously has the opposite of the Midas touch.
I don’t give two hoots about moyo or zanu.
Ministers are appointed by the President not parliament hence are answerable to HIM (President) that is the way it is in this sovereign STATE of ours Zimbabwe>