HARARE, Zimbabwe — Zimbabwe’s former information minister, reputed to be the mastermind behind Zimbabwe’s harsh media laws, has rejoined President Robert Mugabe’s ZANU-PF, the party said Friday.
Jonathan Moyo, currently Zimbabwe’s sole independent lawmaker, had been welcomed back into the fold, said Ephraim Masawi, ZANU-PF spokesman.
“The politburo considered the application by professor Jonathan Moyo to rejoin ZANU-PF which was unanimously endorsed,” Masawi told a news conference.
Moyo is the only independent MP in Zimbabwe’s 210-seat parliament where Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) has a razor-thin edge with 100 lawmakers to ZANU-PF’s 99. A breakaway MDC faction holds 10 seats.
He is blamed by critics for crafting Zimbabwe’s tough media laws that saw several private newspapers fold during his tenure as information minister.
Moyo quit ZANU-PF after falling out with Mugabe and ZANU-PF in 2005 after opting to contest as an independent candidate in parliamentary elections.
Zimbabwe formed a unity government in February joining Mugabe’s ZANU-PF and Tsvangirai’s MDC. Source: AP