The Sunday News
Harare Bureau
Zanu-PF Politburo member and Minister of Defence Dr Sydney Sekeramayi has put Professor Jonathan Moyo in his place after the latter last week tried to drag him into his successionist politics and anti Vice-President Mnangagwa agenda.
Dr Sekeramayi exclusively told our Harare Bureau on Friday that Prof Moyo – a fellow Politburo member and Cabinet minister – that he was uninterested in his self-serving endeavours. On Thursday, Prof Moyo told a Sapes Trust Policy Dialogue in Harare that Dr Sekeramayi was the highest-ranking Zanu-PF member after President Mugabe and stood in good stead to take over as Head of State and Government.
He then attacked Vice-President Emmerson Mnangagwa and also tried to pit him against VP Phelekezela Mphoko in what observers said was a divisive attempt to play senior officials against each other for his own ends. Sources said Dr Sekeremayi was furious with Prof Moyo, and appearing visibly irritated by the attempt to drag him into successionist and factional politics, the Defence Minister told our Harare Bureau: “Please, they must leave me in peace. Why drag me into those things?”
Observers told our sister newspaper The Herald last week that Prof Moyo was talking as if VP Mnangagwa and Dr Sekeramayi were in some sort of competition, and called on the party to discipline him. Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans Association chair Mr Christopher Mutsvangwa said, “Imagine Judas Iscariot sitting in judgement over the (other 11) apostles that stuck all the way to the cross with Jesus Christ?
“Now Jonso (Prof Moyo) had his mark sheet, doling out scores to self-chosen recipients of the equivalent of Oscars of the Zimbabwe Revolution — all in a phony undertaking that reeks of apostasy and treachery through and through . . . Jonso the war time deserter and treacherous spy never was Zanu-PF.”
Analyst Mr Tafadzwa Mugwadi added that Prof Moyo’s “warped mentality” should not be allowed to undermine and devalue the liberation struggle, while another observer Mr Goodwine Mureriwa said Prof Moyo was trying to find a godfather for his successionist and factionalist cabal.
