via It’s nonsense, says Gumbo – DailyNews Live 4 November 2014 by Thelma Chikwanha
HARARE – Zanu PF spokesperson, Rugare Gumbo, has dismissed as “absolute nonsense” allegations by his party detractors that he is linked to Baba Jukwa and that he is unfit to speak on behalf of the party, singling out Information minister Jonathan Moyo as being at the centre of the lies.
A miffed Gumbo told the Daily News in an interview yesterday that the criticism that he was receiving was the work of “well-known” regime change merchants inside Zanu PF, whose sole mission was to oust President Robert Mugabe from power.
Reacting to reports that meetings of the party’s Midlands and Matabeleland North coordinating committees had allegedly reached consensus that he was an unsuitable spokesperson because he supposedly tended to speak on behalf of a faction in the divided party, Gumbo said his “desperate” detractors would fail in their mission.
He said in any case, there was no such consensus reached at the meetings in question.
The State media reports also bizarrely fingered Gumbo as having been intimately involved in the Baba Jukwa phenomenon, the shadowy Facebook character who published damaging information and rumours about Zanu PF and many of its leading officials in the run up to the disputed July 31, 2013 elections.
“This is absolute nonsense,” Gumbo said.
“Jonathan Moyo (minister of Information) is friends with Baba Jukwa. He (Edmund Kudzayi, editor of the State-owned Sunday Mail newspaper) came like any other volunteer to the party and he joined a consortium chaired by Moyo. He was never employed by Zanu PF. Jonathan Moyo employed Baba Jukwa,” he fumed.
Gumbo also queried why Moyo, if he had nothing to do with Baba Jukwa, had not fired Kudzayi since The Sunday Mail editor was fingered as the shadowy social media character. “They are good at manufacturing lies,” Gumbo said.
“Again I must say this is nonsense. I can’t spill propaganda to the nation and that is what they want me to do. These guys are the same people who are in the regime change agenda. They have misled the First Family. “They have created confusion in order to win the confidence of the first family and they have confused the nation through the distortion of events.”
He added: “We know they are involved in regime change. The reports are being manufactured by Jonathan Moyo.” Gumbo also disputed claims that he had already started addressing Mujuru as the president. “As I said, they are manufacturers of lies, and this is evidence of some of their lies,” he added.
The Zanu PF spokesperson said the party’s elective congress, which will be held early next month, would end the current misinformation campaigns and political games that were wrecking the party. “Congress will decide who gets what position. All of those people who are clamouring for positions should wait for congress. Why are they being impatient? They must face the people at congress,” he said.
Gumbo also told the Daily News that he was unfazed by calls from the same people that he was unsuitable to be Zanu PF spokesperson. “Whether unsuitable or not, my performance is judged by the person who appointed me, my party and the nation at large and not by regime change agents,” he said.
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