HARARE – The minister of Media, Information and Broadcasting Services, Jonathan Moyo, has suggested that there was no other option for Zanu PF except to expel former Presidential Affairs minister Didymus Mutasa from the party.
Engaging with Zimbabweans on social media platforms on Thursday evening, Moyo said there was no need to probe Mutasa because his case was allegedly straight forward.
“Mutasa’s was an open & shut case. It was common cause with nothing to probe,” Moyo said in response to a question posed to him on why the party’s disciplinary committee never engaged Mutasa.
Mutasa, along with his nephew Temba Mliswa, the former Zanu PF chairperson for Mashonaland West, was on Wednesday expelled from Zanu PF for making remarks that were not allegedly consistent with the values of the party.
However, Mutasa has since pooh-poohed his purported expulsion, saying it was a “sham” since it was passed by an illegal politburo meeting.
Moyo went on to say that President Robert Mugabe, who turns 91 today, was not going anywhere anytime soon, notwithstanding his recent mortifying fall at the Harare International Airport.
“He was not elected on 31 July 2013, about 20 months ago, to retire.
He was elected to govern for five years from July 31, 2013 to July 31, 2018. That is what he is doing and he is determined to discharge his constitutional mandate,” the minister said.
Asked whether First Lady Grace Mugabe, who is accused of now calling the shots in both Zanu PF and government, is gunning to succeed her husband, Moyo said: “Who knows? Your guess is as good as any other”.
Turning to the Gukurahundi atrocities of the 1980s, Moyo appeared to differ sharply with Vice President Phelekezela Mphoko’s insistence that the killing of an estimated 20 000 innocent civilians was a Western conspiracy.
“I am still trying to come to terms with those remarks in terms of their intended meaning and purpose.
“Meanwhile, I know that most people agree that the late VP Joshua Nkomo and President Mugabe addressed the Gukurahundi issue in very fundamental terms with rich lessons for all of us. There is no need to be revisionist about this.
“I do not think there is a problem in the country about unravelling the causes of that dark period in our country’s early independence period. The question of its causes has been addressed authoritatively, especially in the run up to the historic Unity Accord (of 1987).
“What has remained with lingering questions are not the Gukurahundi causes but the Gukurahundi consequences,” Moyo said.
Mphoko courted the ire of the public when he told lickspittle State media last week that Mugabe was not the author of the Midlands and Matabeleland massacres which claimed the lives of an estimated 20 000 people.
In his interactions with Zimbabweans on social media, Moyo also denied that he was behind the barbaric bombing of the Daily News’ printing Press by alleged State agents in 2001.
“That is an allegation. It has been made countless times before without any truth or facts to support it. I hope and pray that one day the real truth will be known.
“I honestly don’t know and that is the truth between me and God,” he said.
