By Mugove Tafirenyika
Under fire Higher and Tertiary Education minister Jonathan Moyo, who is battling a slew of corruption charges, says he has great respect for his ex-Cabinet colleague Didymus Mutasa despite their political differences.
Still locked in a bitter war with his rivals in a battle that has since turned tribal, Moyo is now seemingly seeking new pals.
In 2014, the then State Security minister Mutasa accused Moyo – the incumbent Information minister at the time – of abusing State media to demonise former Vice President Joice Mujuru in an onslaught against her faction.
Responding to his twitter followers who had taken him to task over his love-hate relationship with Zanu PF that has seen him being kicked out of the ruling party at one point, Moyo said he owed his return to the fold to President Robert Mugabe and Mutasa.
“I was brought back by … Mugabe & the process was facilitated by Didymus Mutasa for whom I have lots of respect even as we differ!”
Moyo said last week. Mutasa was Zanu PF secretary for administration when Moyo applied for readmission into the party nearly five years after he was sacked for defying a party directive not to stand as an independent candidate in the March 2005 general elections.
Prior to his readmission in 2009, Mutasa described the Tsholotsho North MP Moyo as an asset saying “in Jonathan Moyo, I find a very good and important investment for the party. He is a very good information person”.
But five years later, Mutasa was singing a different tune saying Moyo had become a national security threat.
“As a matter of fact, they (security agencies) now do not understand what Jonathan nemanewspapers ake (Moyo and his newspapers) are doing.
“And there is a possibility that we shall start investigating him thoroughly because zviri kuitika munyika muno (what is happening in this country) currently hazvisiri zvinhu kwazvo, zvinoputsa nyika zvakatungamirirwa naJonathan (all these things will destroy the country and being led by Jonathan).
At the time, Mutasa told the Daily News that Moyo was at the heart of besmirching the country’s top leadership, particularly Mujuru, a situation that was threatening national security.
On the other hand, Moyo hit back at Mutasa describing him as a security threat rather than a security person as he delivered a lecture. Daily News
