FORMER Information Minister and independent Tsholotsho North MP Jonathan Moyo has written to Zanu PF seeking re-admission into the party he described in 2007 as a “dead duck on the shelf, only breathing from evils of state security and the abuse of funds”.
Zanu PF chairman John Nkomo confirmed last night that Moyo submitted his letter to secretary for administration Didymus Mutasa three weeks ago after Vice President Joseph Msika’s funeral.
Of late Moyo has been writing long articles in the state media viciously attacking both formations of the MDC and showering praises on President Robert Mugabe and Zanu PF.
“Yes, he wrote to VaMutasa three weeks ago after Vice President Msika’s funeral,” Nkomo saidNkomo said the matter will then be presented to the politburo, which will refer it to him as party chairman and head of the disciplinary committee.
Moyo will then be hurled before the disciplinary committee.
However, sources in the politburo told the Zimbabwe Independent that Moyo, if re-admitted into the party would have to start at cell level.
“What happened in 2000 (fast-tracking of Moyo into the central committee and politburo) is not going to happen again,” a senior Zanu PF politburo member said. “He will have to start at cell level and rise through the ranks like everyone else. He is not going to start at the top, that is for sure.”
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Justice minister Patrick Chinamasa (pictured) yesterday said he hoped Moyo’s appeal would receive a favourable response from the party.
“If indeed it is true, I would like to say welcome home to him,” said Chinamasa. “He has done so much for the party. I hope that his application would be favourable. I worked well with him, as you know. He made immense contribution to our fight against imperialism and neo-colonialism. He ranks among the patriots in the party.”
Moyo fell out of favour of Mugabe when he allegedly masterminded the infamous Tsholotsho Declaration in November 2004 to re-arrange the Zanu PF presidium. Mugabe blocked his nomination into the central committee and dropped him from the politburo.
He was subsequently expelled as a cabinet minister and from Zanu PF in February 2005 after he stood for parliamentary elections as an independent candidate, defying a party decision to reserve the Tsholotsho seat for a female candidate. After his expulsion he turned against the party and President Robert Mugabe whom he served as a chief propagandist.
Just in December last year in an interview with Reuters, Moyo denounced Zanu PF calling it a “tribal clique” with no respect for democracy and has often said the party was full of geriatrics clinging to power.He played a pivotal role in championing Mugabe’s propaganda against the MDC between 2000 and 2005.
Moyo was responsible for crafting the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act, which caused suffering among journalists through unlawful incarceration and closure of newspapers such as the Daily News and The Tribune.
Moyo’s rise to one of the most powerful positions in Zimbabwe was unprecedented. He came to the fore of the Zimbabwe’s politics during the drafting of the rejected 2000 government draft constitution, as spokesperson. Once the draft constitution was rejected, Mugabe appointed him to his cabinet as Minister of Information in the President’s Office and he was appointed to the central committee and then the politburo.
Faith Zaba
