Maverick Moyo eager to mix it with old colleagues
March 31, 2005
Tsholotsho - Once President Robert Mugabe's right-hand man, politician Jonathan Moyo is fighting for a comeback in today's elections, squaring off against the party that for four years considered him their biggest zealot.
Moyo has returned to his home in Tsholotsho, a poor rural area in southwestern Matabeleland where he was born 48 years ago, to try to win election to parliament as an independent.
He fell out with Mugabe four months ago over changes to the party leadership .
But from his campaign headquarters in his home in Tsholotsho - by far the biggest house in the village - Moyo shows that he remains a force to be reckoned with.
He barks orders into his cellphone while he picks and chooses the guests he is willing to receive, including journalists kept waiting for hours.
"When the president came a few days ago, he said to the people that if they vote against his party, they would be marginalised and isolated," Moyo said.
"But they are already marginalised and isolated!" he cried. "This is not a message. It's a threat.
"Zimbabwe does not belong to President Mugabe. Zimbabwe does not belong to Zanu-PF. Zimbabwe belongs to all of us," he proclaimed.
The architect of Zimbabwe's repressive media laws adopted in 2002, Moyo fell out of favour for challenging Mugabe's choice of Joyce Mujuru as vice-president of Zanu-PF and of the country, putting her potentially in line for the presidency.
The two men have since been at daggers drawn, with Mugabe accusing his former protégé of conspiring to stage a coup. He recounted to supporters how Moyo "started crying" when confronted with the allegations.
Moyo says that if elected he will be able to stand up to Zanu-PF - a party whose inner workings he knows well - because members of parliament all toe the party line.
"Zanu-PF is alone, too, they are one voice. They don't disagree among themselves. It will be one voice against that one voice," he says.
Moyo defends his record during his time in government, in particular the closures of four newspapers and sending all foreign correspondents packing.
"It is actually a very good law," he said. "No one should expect Zimbabwe to become a jungle where anyone can come and say what they want. Freedom of the press is different from freedom to lie." - Sapa-AFP.
