Mugabe threatens to 'demolish' Moyo

Mugabe threatens to 'demolish' Moyo

MUGABE

• MDC, Zanu PF take on Moyo in Tsholotsho

• Moyo vacates government house, moves to Byo

• Moyo accuses Mugabe of intimidation

• Moyo launches major push for Tsholotsho

• Moyo's new coalition to challenge Mugabe

• High Court gives Moyo 2 weeks to vacate

• Mugabe's former spin doctor battles eviction

• Tawanda Hove: 'No tears for Moyo'

• Tamborinyoka: 'Let Moyo stew in his unpublished views'

• Your Shouts!: Moyo a hero? Are crazy?

• OPINION: 'Moyo just a village hero'

• ADMORE TSHUMA: Jonathan Moyo, my hero

• PROFILE: JONATHAN NATHANIEL MOYO

• Moyo angers ex-Cabinet colleagues with tribal slur

• Full text of Moyo's reply to dismissal from government

• Moyo slams Zanu PF 'politics of patronage'

• Mugabe drops Moyo from Cabinet

• Mugabe's spin doctor quits, goes independent

• Msika snubs Moyo's Tsholotsho plea

• Moyo bombshell: Gukurahundi killed my dad

• Matsanga delights in Moyo's misfortunes

• Moyo sues Dabengwa, Nkomo for $2bln

• Zanu PF lifts Langa, Ncube's suspension

• Moyo: 'Tsholotsho will hold Nkomo to account'

• Moyo lays into Nkomo, Dabengwa as Zanu PF stalls on Tsholotsho

By Stella Mapenzauswa

ZIMBABWE President Robert Mugabe has urged voters to hand defeat to ex-propaganda chief Jonathan Moyo, whose defection ahead of this month's polls revealed cracks in the ruling ZANU-PF party.

"We say fine, get out of the party, let's see. The whole machinery of the party will fall on you and you will get demolished," Mugabe told a rally of around 3,000 in Moyo's home district of Tsholotsho north of Bulawayo.

Mugabe hinted that Moyo had sought to engineer a military coup after he left the ruling party, which is widely expected to ride to a national victory amid opposition charges of political repression.

"He did terrible things, going to the army commander ... did you want him to effect a coup in your favour, so you become leader?" Mugabe asked.

Moyo lost favour with Mugabe after convening a secret meeting late last year which the party says sought to push its own candidate for both party and national vice president.

He was dropped from ZANU-PF's top leadership for backing Speaker of Parliament Emmerson Mnangagwa for the vice-presidency, in a furore which saw Mugabe suspend over a dozen other top party officials.

The post instead went to Joyce Mujuru, inn what was seen as a step towards succeeding Mugabe, 81, who is widely expected to retire when his present term ends in 2008.

As information minister, Moyo spearheaded ZANU-PF's diplomatic war of words with the West.

Moyo has nevertheless taken on his former master, running as an independent in the March 31 parliamentary polls for his home district of Tsholotsho.

The controversial Moyo has become the most visible symbol of deep divisions within the ZANU-PF -- which have taken on ethnic overtones in the fierce struggle over who is likely to take over from Mugabe.

Moyo was sacked as minister after he decided to stand as an independent in Tsholotsho -- a constituency in which ZANU-PF intended to field a woman candidate.

Moyo has campaigned hard in the region, and local political analysts say he could take the seat from ZANU-PF, a result which would likely enrage Mugabe.

On Wednesday, Mugabe said the area would regret giving any votes to Moyo.

"If we hear tomorrow that Tsholotsho voted for Professor Jonathan Moyo, we will say where does Tsholotsho want to go? Into isolation, into oblivion?"

Moyo says Mugabe is surrounded by clique of tribalists seeking to monopolise power in the president's Zezuru group of the majority Shona tribe. Moyo is a member of the minority Ndebele tribe which has a history of political strife with the Shona-dominated government.

Earlier this month Moyo accused ZANU-PF officials of intimidating people in Tsholotsho by suggesting that failing to vote for the party could provoke reprisals similar to a 1980s government crackdown that rights groups say left 20,000 civilians dead.

That crackdown in the minority Ndebele-speaking Matabeleland region, which includes Tsholotsho, fuelled ethnic tensions with the Shona which only ended with a 1987 pact which saw the two regions' political parties merge into ZANU-PF - Reuters
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