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Moyo lays into Nkomo, Dabengwa as Zanu PF stalls on Tsholotsho
By Staff Reporter
ZIMBABWE'S Information Minister Jonathan Moyo launched an unprecedented
savage attack on the ruling Zanu PF party's national chairman John Nkomo
and former cabinet minister Dumiso Dabengwa on Thursday, calling them
"primitive liars" in his battle to represent the party in
the March parliamentary elections in Tsholotsho constituency.
The brutal attack on the two senior party leaders came as Zanu PF appeared to be headed for an embarassing climbdown on preventing Moyo from standing in the party primary elections in the district.
Zanu PF was expected to announce the final list of candidates to contest the primaries on Friday, but Tsholotsho was ommitted, because, according to national secretary for the commissariat Elliot Manyika, there was need to consult on the candidates.
Manyika and Nkomo will visit Tsholotsho on Monday insisting the seat is reserved for women, but our correspondents say there are indications that the two will face hostilities from Moyo's supporters who will reject the idea.
On Wednesday, Dabengwa and Nkomo went to Tsholotsho where they dissolved the District Coordinating Committee which is thought to be loyal to Moyo.
At the meeting, Nkomo said Moyo would not be allowed to stand. However, the announcement that he will have to go back once again to "consult" appears to be a huge political blow for him following Wednesday's pronouncements which appeared to clear the way for five women candidates to contest for the seat.
Below is an abridged version of Moyo's statement released to the media on Thursday:
"The meeting (Wednesday's) was unfortunate in that Cdes Nkomo and Dabengwa used it to allege that I convened a meeting at Dinyane High School in Tsholotsho on November 18, 2004 whose purpose was to plot a coup against President Mugabe and the Party’s Presidium and that this alleged coup plot is contained in the so-called Tsholotsho Declaration.
"Furthermore, it was unfortunate that a whole National Chairman chose to sink so low to the Tsholotsho DCC to specifically bar me from participating in the party’s primary elections when the very same matter was now before the party’s National Election Directorate and the Politburo.
"Why did Cde Nkomo, as National Chairman, not go to sort out things in Makonde DCC or Mutoko North DCC or Kariba DCC or any of the many other DCCs which, like Tsholotsho, had aspiring but aggrieved candidates for primary elections who had appealed to the National Election Directorate?
"His going to the Tsholotsho DCC yesterday (Wednesday) ahead of deliberations of the National Election Directorate can only be seen as a personal and vengeful mission against an individual. This smacks of an abuse of office and is unfortunate for that reason. Even worse, Cde Nkomo’s mission to Tsholotsho yesterday in the company of Cde Dabengwa will add more unhappy speculation that he is doing everything to weaken Zanu-PF by ensuring that it fields a weak candidate so as to pave way for his MDC relative Sipepa Nkomo, who has been mentioned in the newspapers as a possible MDC candidate in Tsholotsho.
"The blatant and defamatory political lies about the so-called Tsholotsho Declaration have been taken too far by Cdes Nkomo and Dabengwa and, in the interest of justice, fairness and the rule of law, Cdes Nkomo and Dabengwa must now be held legally accountable for their defamatory political lies in the courts.
"Regarding the unprecedented and unprocedural declaration to the Tsholotsho DCC by Cdes Nkomo and Dabengwa at yesterday’s meeting that they will not allow me to stand as a candidate in the forthcoming parliamentary elections to represent Tsholotsho on a Zanu-PF ticket, I wish to respectfully point out that the decision on who will represent Tsholotsho in Parliament entirely depends on the people of Tsholotsho and not on the punitive whims of Cdes Nkomo and Dabengwa.
"As to Cdes Nkomo’s and Dabengwa’s self-indulgent declaration that they will not allow me to contest in Tsholotsho on a Zanu-PF ticket, I wish to respectfully remind them that Zanu-PF is larger than any two or three individuals and any attempts to personalise the party are ultimately bound to fail. In any event, Cdes Nkomo and Dabengwa should know that there is no one ticket to heaven; there are many such tickets and that’s why there are many churches and many religions and all with tickets to heaven.
"I find it shameful that a man of his (Dabengwa's) history and stature should travel all the way from Bulawayo Province to Tsholotsho in Matabeleland North Province to make that kind of primitive lie. Many who actually know the truth about this matter will be shocked but perhaps not surprised to hear this fabrication.
"Another fabrication peddled by both Cdes Nkomo and Dabengwa at the Tsholotsho meeting yesterday is that I have no history in Zanu-PF. The truth of the matter is that I have been a card-carrying member of Zanu-PF for a much longer period than the two comrades who are my seniors in the party.
| "The truth of the matter is that I have been a card-carrying member of Zanu-PF for a much longer period than the two comrades. Therefore, as far as card-carrying in the party is concerned, they are mafikizolos, not me" |
| PROFESSOR JONATHAN MOYO |
"Therefore, as far as card-carrying in the party is concerned, they are mafikizolos, not me. What has shocked me most is that Cde Nkomo did not have any shame in telling the Tsholotsho DCC during yesterday’s meeting that "if it (not having me as the Zanu-PF candidate for Tsholotsho) means losing this constituency then let it go".
"How can such manifestly pro-MDC sentiments come from the National Chairman of the ruling Party, Zanu-PF? Has Cde John Nkomo forgotten that the MDC got all but two constituencies in the three Matabeleland provinces in the 2000 parliamentary election and does he now want a repeat of that in the forthcoming election?
"In the same vein, equally shocking are the claims by Cde Nkomo at the same meeting yesterday seeking to link me with the MDC’s regime change agenda.
"Nothing could be more ludicrous. For starters, I do not have an MDC relative interested in representing Tony Blair’s sell-out party in Tsholotsho but Cde Nkomo does.
"It is a matter of public record that Cde Nkomo is either so afraid or so accommodating of the MDC that he is unwilling or unable to face an MDC candidate at the polls.
"His excuse is that he is national and does not want to stoop low to contest the MDC at constituency level.
"But Zimbabweans know that the only person who was entitled to that position was Father Zimbabwe, the late Vice President Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo and no one else. That is why the late Vice President Muzenda faced the MDC in Gutu North and won.
"The new Vice President Cde Mujuru represents a constituency in Mt Darwin after facing the MDC in 2000 and winning big.
"Now that he (Nkomo) wrongly thinks the MDC has been defeated, he has the scheming political guts to go to Tsholotsho to desperately seek to link me with the MDC in vain!
"Finally, Cdes Nkomo and Dabengwa would be better advised if they appreciated that national unity is not synonymous with them as individuals and is not their personal possession which they can monopolise willy nilly.
"National unity is about and for the people in terms of their economic, social, cultural and democratic political development.
"This is what the people in Matabeleland want as it is indeed what all Zimbabweans want. Without any prejudice to them, Cdes John Nkomo and Dumiso Dabengwa have terribly failed the people of Matabeleland in this regard.
"Now they are coming across as opposed to development in the region unless such development is done as their personal projects as shown by the case of the Zambezi Matabeleland Water Project that Cde Dabengwa has personalised using a company when the project is inter-provincial and therefore national and requiring national effort through the Government.
"As if that is not bad enough, they are now at the forefront of hitting Zanu-PF in Matabeleland like a tsunami when parliamentary elections that the party has dubbed "Anti-Blair" are around the corner!
"Where will the two thirds that the party needs to defeat Blair come from if the Matabeleland constituencies are lost as happened in 2000?
That all this seems
to be lost to Cde Nkomo is as unfortunate as it is unacceptable and
there is need for a collective and responsible rethink beyond the personality
politics of hatred and petty jealousies pursued under the reckless guise
of instilling discipline in the party."
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