Tsvangirai will win: Jonathan Moyo

Senior Zanu (PF) officials are becoming increasingly vocal in expressing their doubts that President Robert Mugabe can win the forthcoming election – as the strongman upon whom they have all depended for so long becomes increasingly frail and his public pronouncements increasingly incoherent. 

Mugabe, and indeed all his senior officials, have failed to articulate a coherent message about what Zanu (PF) will do to turn around the fortunes of Zimbabwe – notably the 95% unemployment rate, the collapse of agriculture and industry, the dearth of foreign investment and rampant corruption. Instead they have resorted to primitive insults about the physical appearance of his opponent Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai.

Impeccable sources told The Zimbabwean this week that even long-time party spin doctor and Mugabe confidant, Jonathan Moyo, believes the president will lose the election to Tsvangirai.

“We also know that there are many other senior people within the party and within CIO who believe Tsvangirai will win,” said the source, adding that former Information Minister Moyo had been overheard saying Tsvangirai would easily win over half of the votes needed to become the next president.

“He is disillusioned with the manifesto that he was pivotal in writing and says that everybody knows the indigenisation policy only benefits Zanu (PF) officials and their already wealthy cronies. He said that the party’s representatives at COPAC failed to get their changes to the new constitution approved by the other parties, which proves they have lost their power and that, internally, the majority are resigned to Mugabe losing the Presidency. Moyo said Tsvangirai would win because only he will create jobs for Zimbabweans and everybody knows it,” said the source.

In 2009, when he was an independent MP after being expelled from Zanu (PF) for plotting Mugabe’s ouster, Moyo wrote in the local media that under Mugabe’s rule the economy had melted and that the Zanu (PF) leader was “now too old, too tired. Mugabe now lacks the vision, stature and energy to effectively run the country, let alone his party.”

Political analyst and former Mavambo/Kusile/Dawn executive Ibbo Mandaza said “As long as Mugabe is the Zanu (PF) presidential candidate the party will lose heavily to MDC-T and Tsvangirai since no-one will vote for a 90-year-old man.

UZ law lecturer Greg Lennington said Zanu (PF) members were not telling their leaders and the world publicly that the party will lose because they fear losing what they have acquired, like farms. “People within Zanu (PF) recognise their leader is old and needs to rest, thus this is a source of frustration.”

Well-known businessman Alex Mashamhanda said: “Judging by public opinion, MDC-T is going to win.” The Zimbabwean