Cops quiz Jonathan Moyo on Baba Jukwa

Information Minister Jonathan Moyo was yesterday questioned by the police over the case in which Sunday Mail editor Edmund Kudzayi and his brother Phillip are accused of attempting to subvert a constitutionally-elected government and undermining the authority of the President.

Police sources close to the investigations confirmed Prof Moyo’s questioning and said the minister went to the Police General Headquarters in the morning to assist with the ongoing investigations.

The meeting was held in the presence of senior police officers, but by last night it was still not clear what transpired.

On Wednesday, detectives from the CID Law and Order Section went to Prof Moyo’s offices where they left summons, ordering him to report at PGHQ at around 8am.

Police sources said this comes after the Officer Commanding CID Law and Order Section Assistant Commissioner Crispen Makedenge on Wednesday ordered one Chief Supt Nsingo to summon the minister over the case.

“You are being ordered to summon Honourable Minister of Information, Media and Broadcasting Services Professor Jonathan Moyo to testify in a case in which Edmund Kudzayi and Phillip Kudzayi are being charged with attempting to subvert a constitutionally elected government or alternatively attempting to commit an act of insurgency, banditry, sabotage or terrorism and undermining the authority of the President and keeping ammunition in an unsecured place,” read part of the order.

“Please bring any documents that you think will assist.”

Last month President Mugabe branded Moyo a “devil incarnate” while accusing him of appointing editors of state-owned newspapers who were sympathetic to the opposition. Mugabe accused Moyo of using the government-controlled newspapers to sow divisions with the ruling Zanu PF party.

Mugabe also complained that Zanu PF had been infiltrated by “weevils” (a crop pest) bent on destroying the party from within. The Zanu PF secretary for administration Didymus Mutasa later urged party youths in Mutare to use gamatox (a lethal pesticide) to deal with the alleged “weevils”.

One of the editors appointed by Moyo is Edmund Kudzayi who was in charge at the Sunday Mail newspaper. Kudzayi was arrested last month on allegations that it was him and brother Philip who were running the Baba Jukwa page and had planned to topple the Mugabe regime using a so-called Gunda-Nleya Brigade.