Higher and Tertiary Education ministerJonathan Moyo has
told President Robert Mugabe how he allegedly tried to form an opposition party
with Vice-President Emmerson Mnangagwa, piling pressure on the under-fire
politician.
Moyo made the stunning allegations at an explosive Zanu PF
politburo meeting last Wednesday, where he also revealed how Mnangagwa
allegedly funded his 2005 Tsholotsho election campaign where he ran as an
independent candidate, numerous ruling party sources have disclosed.
The minister was responding to an equallyhard-hitting presentation
by the VP that sought to expose Moyo’s alleged links with the United States’
Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and disloyalty to Mugabe.
Mnangagwa was giving his eagerly-awaited response to Moyo’s
July 19 video presentation at the same platform that painted the VP as someone
who had become too impatient to see Mugabe’s back.
Sources said Moyo’s unexpected response left Mnangagwa on
the ropes, hours after the same politburo had endorsed plans to turn Zanu PF’s
December conference into a special congress as the former Justice minister’s
enemies in the ruling party intensify efforts to finish him off.
Moyo told the meeting that “despite his self-serving claim
that he has 40 years of unbroken loyalty to the ruling party and Mugabe,
Mnangagwa has not owned up ” to alleged plots to topple the 93-year-old ruler.
The minister said after the so-called Tsholotsho
Declaration, where Zanu PF chairpersons went against the ruling party’s rules
trying to push Mnangagwa into the presidium in 2004, “he sponsored independent
candidates like me to fight Zanu PF in the 2005 general election.”
Impeccable sources said Moyo went on to give details of how
Mnangagwa allegedly led the formation of the stillborn United People’s Movement
(UPM) between 2005 and 2007.
He told the politburo that the UPM’s aim was to topple
Mugabe and replace him with Mnangagwa. Mugabe was reportedly angered by the
fresh revelations and has demanded that Mnangagwa must explain himself.
Moyo claimed that after the Tsholotsho debacle, the VP
tried to engineer a central committee rebellion against Mugabe, before giving a
detailed account of how Mnangagwa sponsored his campaign as an independent
candidate.
He claimed the VP wanted to use his campaign as a rallying
point against the veteran ruler.
The former University of Zimbabwe political science
lecturer claimed Mnangagwa bought him a vehicle to use during the campaign, a
Toyata Surf.
He said the car was bought through a Mr Mutangi and money
for campaign materials such as T-shirts and other incidentals was obtained
through a prominent executive at a leading local bank (name supplied).
However, it is the details of the formation of the UPM that
allegedly caught Mnangagwa flat-footed and could seal his fate.
“Cde Mnangagwa, you have caused too many people to suffer
for your lies,” Moyo allegedly said. “You always sponsor disloyalty to
President Mugabe and Zanu PF, but you never own up for your instigating role.”
Moyo told the meeting Mnangagwa knew that he had first-hand
knowledge of his alleged plots against Mugabe.
He said during the 2005 campaign where the former
Information minister was running against a Zanu PF candidate Musa Mathema,
Mnangagwa deployed his foot soldiers in the banking and legal sectors to
bolster the campaign in Tsholotsho.
“Throughout the planning process, we had several
strategising meetings at the residence of a prominent lawyer who is related to
you,” Moyo is said to have told the VP.
“But you have not owned up to that. Instead, you have given
a presentation that presents you as ‘Cde loyal’ when that is far from the
truth”.
Moyo said Mnangagwa had made “noise about hearsay evidence”
against him yet he had direct evidence as a “witness and a participant in the
schemes against Mugabe”.
The minister said he met Mnangagwa on several occasions at
Pearson Mbalekwa’s farm in Kwekwe and July Moyo’s farm, also in the same
district, to plot against the Zanu PF leader.
Mbalekwa, a relative of the VP, was fired from Zanu PF
after the Tsholotsho debacle, while July Moyo is considered a key strategist in
Mnangagwa’s Lacoste faction.
Moyo said during the meetings, they drafted the policy
document and manifesto for the stillborn UPM.
He said while Mnangagwa claimed Moyo had 200 mentions on
Wikileaks, where he was passing information to American spies, the VP had more
than that number.
He said they allegedly included encounters with “the
Rhodesian Colonel Lionel Dyke with whom you engaged in a failed conspiracy to
topple President Mugabe in favour of Morgan Tsvangirai in 2002.”
He cited one cable where Mbalekwa explained how Mnangagwa allegedly
formed UPM and that he was its leader.
Besides Mbalekwa, sources said, Moyo said many others,
including July Moyo, Mabel Chinomona and Daniel Shumba, knew about Mnangagwa’s
UPM links.
The sources said Moyo said that “the time has come for you
to also carry your cross” after detailing how Mnangagwa allegedly sacrificed
others without taking responsibility.
Earlier, the VP had told the politburo that the issue to
settle was who was more loyal to Mugabe between him and Moyo. Mnangagwa,
sources said, described his nemesis as a mafikizolo (Johnny come-lately) and a
CIA spy whose code was 00263.
He said Moyo was allegedly behind the leaking of sensitive
state and Zanu PF secrets. The sources said Mnangagwa said Moyo was disloyal to
Mugabe and used articles Moyo published during his time at the UZ in the late
1980s to early 1990s to back his claims.
The VP also cited articles Moyo published between 2005 and
2008 when his rival was an independent MP following his expulsion from Zanu PF.
He referred to Moyo’s meetings with US diplomats between
2005 and 2008, which were captured in the State Department diplomatic cables
release by Wikileaks. He said that was evidence of Moyo’s spying activities.
He charged that Moyo has an inherently treacherous character
and cited an entry in a book written by the late Ndabaningi Sithole’s wife,
Vesta Suangweme Sithole, one of the source said.
Saungweme Sithole wrote in her memoirs about “Mr Jonathan
Moyo”, who was supposed to visit several African countries with her in 1979 to
“demonstrate the support that Ndabaningi Sithole had in Rhodesia” on their way
to Britain for the Lancaster constitutional talks.
Moyo is said to have responded by saying: “Is every
Jonathan Moyo out there because in 1979 he was an undergraduate student at the
University of Southern California having started in 1978 after going to America
in 1977”.
Mnangagwa also had Moyo on the ropes when he kept reviewing
and highlighting the political scientist’ acerbic attacks on Mugabe, especially
in 1992 and 1993.
Moyo told the politburo he had on numerous occasions owned
up to his published record and “will continue to do that as many times as
necessary.”
He said on the other hand, Mnangagwa continued to falsely
present himself as squeaky clean with an unbroken record of loyalty to Mugabe,
but his UPM role was evidence of his disloyalty and treachery.
Moyo declared that “there are too many participants who
know about Mnangagwa’s involvement in the opposition party whom he said are
itching to testify”.
Sources said Mnangagwa remained stone-faced during Moyo’s
charge and did not respond, while Mugabe appeared to be angered by the
“eyewitness account.”
Axed Public Service minister Prisca Mupfumira was told to
shut up by Mugabe after she tried to take the fight to G40, sources said.
Meanwhile, sources said Mnangagwa had suffered a severe
blow at the start of the politburo meeting when Zanu PF secretary for
administration Ignatius Chombo presented that plans for the party’s conference
had been put on hold to make way for an extraordinary congress.
Chombo said the congress would be held in Harare after the
majority of Zanu PF’s provinces petitioned for the event to confirm Mugabe as
the party’s candidate for the 2018 elections.
Mugabe wants to use the congress to consolidate his power,
which will enable him to choose his preferred successor, widely believed to be
Sydney Sekeramayi.
Sources said Mnangagwa was caught unawares by Chombo’s
report.
After the politburo endorsed Chombo’s report, Mnangawa took
the floor to present his response to Moyo.
Moyo is said to have raised what he said was “a point in
limine”, arguing that the matter was sub judice as Mnangagwa sued him over the
July 19 video.
Sources said Mugabe quizzed both Mnangagwa and Moyo on what
aspects of the presentation were sub judice. The Zanu PF leader is said to have
bemoaned the alleged abuse of the politburo by people taking its matters to the
courts.
He then ordered Mnangagwa to proceed with his presentation
without making references to Godfrey Majonga. standard
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