Source: Moyo, Zhuwao in Mnangagwa firing line – DailyNews Live
Farayi Machamire 12 February 2018
HARARE – The chances of Zanu PF’s alleged Generation 40 kingpins –
Jonathan Moyo, Patrick Zhuwao and Saviour Kasukuwere – returning home any
time soon, and making peace with President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s government
have just dimmed further after the government classified them as security
risks.
The trio are now living in self-imposed exile following the fall of former
president Robert Mugabe – who resigned from power late last year on the
back of a military intervention and a threatened impeachment process in
Parliament.
Moyo and Zhuwao have been publicly and viciously attacking Mnangagwa’s
government through social media and interviews with foreign media over the
past few weeks.
On his part, Kasukuwere – who is said to be trying to smoke a peace pipe
with Mnangagwa’s government – is being linked in some quarters to alleged
cloak-and-dagger activities of the mooted National Patriotic Front (NPF),
which is also courting opposition parties to take on Zanu PF and its
leader in this year’s crucial national elections.
Kasukuwere, unlike Moyo and Zhuwao, has not been vocal in public since
Mugabe fell – with much of what is attributed to him coming through other
people claiming to speak for him.
Home Affairs minister Obert Mpofu told the Daily News at the weekend that
as a result, the government was closely following the actions of the trio,
as it was concerned with the G40s’ continuing attacks on the new
administration.
“We are very concerned with what they are doing. Their accusations
against the leaders of government are very worrying.
“Contrary to what they claim, no harm has come to their comrades who have
remained in the country. We thus continue to follow their actions
closely,” Mpofu said.
This comes as Moyo and Kasukuwere’s bank accounts have already been
frozen, as authorities seek to get answers from them relating to their
financial activities.
However, Mpofu said the government had no plans to seize the duo’s
properties or any belonging to other G40-linked kingpins.
“I am not aware of any property that has been taken from them . . . If the
situation changes, it will be up to the responsible authorities to start
the legal processes (to do so),” the minister said while responding to
allegations that the military had seized nine cars from Kasukuwere.
The Daily News was told yesterday that in order to seize property, the
police usually needed to prove to a court “by a preponderance of the
evidence” that the property was connected to, or likely to be used in
criminal activities.
Mpofu insisted at the weekend that the government’s hands were “clean” and
that if any army officials had ransacked the homes of the exiled former
Zanu PF bigwigs, then the long arm of the law would catch up with those
found culpable.
The curtain fell on Mugabe on November 21 last year when he resigned
moments after Parliament had started proceedings to impeach him.
This followed a military intervention that was code-named Operation
Restore Legacy, which saw the nonagenarian and his wife being placed under
house arrest.
Several Cabinet ministers linked to the G40 faction, which had coalesced
around Mugabe’s reckless wife Grace, were targeted in the operation which
ended just before Christmas – with the soldiers only retreating to their
barracks after five weeks of executing the operation.
Moyo is facing a slew of allegations relating to corruption – which
include serious fraud, money laundering and criminal abuse of office
charges, as well as claims that he benefited from Zimbabwe Manpower
Development Fund (Zimdef) donations that involved the purchase of
bicycles, which he donated to his Tsholotsho North constituency.
The Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (Zacc) alleges that the donations
of the bicycles was not done above board.
The anti-graft body further claims that Moyo, his then deputy Godfrey
Gandawa, and Zimdef chief executive Frederick Mandizvidza, were at the
centre of multiple corrupt and fraudulent activities running into hundreds
of thousands of dollars.
On his part, the former Tsholotsho North MP says he is not corrupt and
instead, has been working hard to discredit the government by repeatedly
questioning the legitimacy of Mnangagwa and his administration which has
been accepted by Sadc, the African Union and key Western powers.
Moyo has also told the international media that his life is allegedly in
danger, and that he has no intentions of coming back home until there is
what he terms a “return of constitutional government”.
“The military specifically targeted my house and myself with a clear
intention to cause harm and that is why I am not in the country, although
I left legally.
“I am not at liberty to disclose my whereabouts because they have shown a
very clear and determined intention to find me and harm me wherever I am,”
Moyo said recently in an interview with the BBC.
Mugabe’s nephew, Zhuwao, has also since launched a weekly column which he
uses to discredit and malign Mnangagwa and his government.
Last week he defiantly told the Daily News that he would soon be returning
home – although there is little evidence so far that he will carry out
this promise.
“I am coming back (home) before the end of the year,” Zhuwao declared
then.
It has been reported that the G40 is allegedly bidding to bring together
former vice president Joice Mujuru and the MDC, as part of its wider
campaign to stop Mnangagwa from winning this year’s make-or-break
elections – whose dates are yet to be announced.
The vanquished G40 was locked in a bitter war with Mnangagwa, whom it
fought with the visible help of Mugabe and his wife – before the
intervention of the military which overran the faction when it launched
Operation Restore legacy on November 15 last year.
In the meantime, the disgruntled G40 stalwarts have since written to
regional and continental bodies, the Southern African Development
Community (Sadc) and the African Union (AU), appealing for their
intervention to help Zimbabwe return to “constitutional rule”.
Mujuru, who now somehow enjoys the G40s’ support, recently held talks with
Mugabe at his “Blue Roof” mansion in Harare – three years after she was
sacked from both Zanu PF and government by the 94-year-old.
The NPP leader was ruthlessly cut loose by Mugabe in the run-up to Zanu
PF’s 2014 congress, together with other then leading ruling party figures
who included former Cabinet ministers Didymus Mutasa and Rugare Gumbo – on
untested allegations of seeking to topple the power-addicted nonagenarian.
Mujuru’s meeting with Mugabe coincided with the announcement of the
formation of the NPF, which is said to be driven by the exiled G40
kingpins.
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