Zanu PF Succession battle : Underfire Jonathan Moyo hits back at War Vets
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Zanu PF Succession battle : Underfire Jonathan Moyo hits back at War Vets

HIGHER and Tertiary Education minister Jonathan Moyo has declared only President Robert Mugabe can stop him from attending Zanu PF politburo meetings and labelled War Veterans minister Christopher Mutsvangwa a “coup plotter”.

Moyo made the remarks yesterday in response to war veterans’ threats to bar him from attending Zanu PF meetings for allegedly insulting Presidential spokesperson George Charamba.

“For anyone else to seek to do that under any pretext whatsoever will be tantamount to usurping the President’s prerogative and authority, something which is not different from a successionist attempt at a coup,” he said.

The Tsholothso North MP also accused Mutsvangwa of attempting to “usurp” Mugabe’s power.

He claimed Mutsvangwa and war veterans secretary-general, Victor Matemadanda illegally met at the Presidential Guard Barracks in Dzivaresekwa last week to prepare a statement denouncing him.

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“It is extraordinary and indeed scary that the Dzivarasekwa Presidential Guard Barracks was used a venue for a meeting whose purpose was to plot and threaten physical harm against a Cabinet minister and politburo member appointed to both offices by His Excellency the President,” Moyo said.

“This was a gross and unacceptable abuse of a State facility. The fact that this unprecedented abuse of State barracks was officiated by Mutsvangwa, a Cabinet minister and politburo member, not only raises eyebrows about what else was plotted.”

But Mutsvangwa hit back saying, “we hope at the next politburo meeting he will excuse himself”.

“If it was not for President Mugabe’s national reconciliation in 1980, Prof (Moyo) would have been a target for court martial for deserting Zanla at Mgagau in 1975, even treason, as he went to spend exile in the belly of then imperialist beast USA.

“I have never spoken on behalf of his ministry. I speak on behalf of (Vice-President Emmerson) Mnangagwa, a war veteran, Charamba, a war collaborator, but not on behalf of deserters. I defend my constituency, but I cannot defend a deserter,” he shot back.

Moyo said it was not the first time Mutsvangwa had abused State resources, citing an incident last year where youths used the War Veterans ministry’s offices to issue statements threatening to bar him, Local Government minister Saviour Kasukuwere and Indigenisation minister Patrick Zhuwao from attending national heroes burials.

He also took a jibe at Charamba, saying: “For the record, I wish to state that it is false and insulting to His Excellency, the President, to claim that he sent George Charamba to savage his Cabinet ministers and politburo members on public radio with all sorts of primitive insults such as ‘uneducated fools’, ‘little men’, among other unprintable epithets,” he said, adding: “Cabinet members and politburo members are not civil servants, but are presidential appointees.”-Newsdayu

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