Of Jonathan Moyo, useful idiots and witting assets

By Tanonoka Joseph Whande

Jonathan Moyo’s disgusting ZIMDEF issue now stars Robert Mugabe, a vice president, civic society, the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (ZACC), a lawyers’ organization, and the Police, among others.

That is one thing about corruption: you never walk alone!

The issue is clear: Moyo and his deputy, a Dr. Gandawa, allegedly abused over $400 000 from the Zimbabwe Manpower Development Fund, a government-sponsored educational entity. Moyo does not deny it.

ZACC reportedly “prepared a docket against Prof Moyo and Dr. Gandawa on five charges of fraud…and three charges under the Money Laundering and Proceeds of Crime Act, stemming from “100 000 litres of diesel worth US$118 500 – fuel which investigators suspect was then sold on the black market”.

ZACC then attempted to arrest Moyo while Mugabe was in Lesotho but Vice President Phelekezela Mphoko blocked Moyo’s arrest.

Determined in their pursuit, ZACC later tried to arrest Moyo again by waylaying him while he was in a Politburo meeting. It failed after Mphoko, again, raised the issue in Mugabe’s presence thereby foiling the attempted arrest.

However, after being found out, the wily Jonathan Moyo did not deny taking the money from ZIMDEF.

“You can say what you want,” Moyo said, “but I would rather be a Robin Hood than a cruel tribalist, murderer & UN identified cross border diamond thief!”

This is in apparent reference to the other vice president, Emerson Mnangagwa, who reportedly leads the other Zanu-Pf group gunning to succeed Mugabe.

Moyo explained that he used the money to sponsor some of the Zanu-Pf rallies Mugabe’s wife, Grace, held – threatening people around the country – adding that a little of the money was used to buy scooters and bicycles for chiefs in his constituency.

Moyo knew that there is no way Mugabe would condemn him for taking government money to use in the promotion of Mrs. Mugabe.

So Moyo skillfully obtained the protection of the President at the expense of the law and he accepted.

Meanwhile, Goodson Nguni, a member in charge of investigations at ZACC and who is believed to belong to Mnangagwa’s faction, said that they had all the statements.

“No monies from ZIMDEF benefited any political party,” said Nguni. “It is a lie. All the money paid out has been traced to the personal benefit of Jonathan Moyo and Gandawa.”

Nguni added that the money from ZIMDEF was used to buy personal furniture, bicycles and tricycles. “But the documentation was forged to show that the money had been used for a computerisation programme,” Nguni stated.

As if that was not enough, the Zimbabwe National Parks and Wildlife Management Authority is reported to have sent a team of investigators to Jonathan Moyo’s Constituency of Tsholotsho to find out if Moyo “had used all the money generated from the sale of elephants to develop a soccer stadium in his constituency”.

In a letter to Mugabe, Moyo says that he is a victim of Zanu-Pf factional fighting over Mugabe’s successor because he, Moyo, is supportive of Mugabe’s wife.

As you can see, we can go on and on and on when we are dealing with thieving morons such as these.

While it is common the world over for politicians to be caught thieving and stripping the nation’s assets, the scary and most disgusting thing, on our part, is when a president protects the corrupt and the lawbreakers and shields them from the dictates of not only the Constitution but of common decency. A president is the custodian of a nation’s constitution.

It was Lenin who first spoke about useful idiots – a description tailor-made for people like Jonathan Moyo – people who know better but enthusiastically do otherwise for personal gain at the expense of the nation. They benefit from other people’s misery while fertilizing monstrosities perpetrated by dictators.

Their job is not only to clap and ululate every time Mugabe urinates but to also convince the people that Mugabe actually pees Fanta.

Mugabe’s crimes are too numerous to itemize. He will never know the extent of the damage he caused not only to the country but to the people of Zimbabwe.

He killed thousands of people and stood trial for none.

Mugabe wears the Gukurahundi Massacre as a badge of honour and insults the nation by ignoring rampant corruption which has all but brought the country to a standstill.

But Jonathan Moyo is no longer just Mugabe’s useful idiot in the sense Lenin meant. He is a witting asset, a volunteer to crimes against our nation.

He has, himself, in his own right, become an accomplice, an enabler who must be accused and prosecuted for the same crimes that Mugabe has and continues to commit.

The tragedy is that because of corruption, greed and simple evil on his part, a president encourages, protects and rewards criminals who are violating not only the laws of our country but the people as well.

In attempts to justify his thievery, Jonathan Moyo likened himself to Robin Hood. He is, of cause, drunk with idiocy and is being tormented by a burning fear to escape being ordinary.

Robin Hood robbed the rich and gave to the poor; Moyo is stealing from the poor and giving to the rich after pocketing most of the loot for himself. And this is a professor entrusted with the molding of our children’s lives.

With Mugabe as the don and godfather, these insensitive people are as organized criminals as the Mafia never was.

Because this gang has robbed the nation and shared so much amongst themselves, they protect each other like orphaned twins.

Mugabe has lost direction and is burdened with crimes accumulated over 36 years; he watches as his underlings tear the nation apart – an endeavor that Mugabe himself started long before our so-called independence.

They use his name to commit crimes and he nods in approval.

The police never investigate such crimes because there are crimes that seem reserved for the president and his associates.

Now we see so-called ordinary people seeking to arrest a cabinet minister and hand him over to the police for prosecution.

Even vendors are filing court applications to have Moyo arrested and answer for the abuse of public funds while a president sits there unresponsive.

On their part, the police say that they have not arrested Jonathan Moyo “because no report has been made to that effect”. But these are the same police who always arrest people first and look for evidence later.

Jonathan Moyo even had the temerity to attempt to cover his criminal activities by saying that he is being persecuted because he is of Ndebele extraction – sad and stupid thing to say but which apparently made sense to something called Mthwakazi.

Crime knows no national, racial or tribal boundaries.

But this is our Zimbabwe where the guilty are happier and safer but where the innocent are afraid and are in great danger.

Ours is a nation that has banned its own national flag.

It is, however, heartening to see the bravery that the Zimbabwean people have acquired.

They are achieving a lot on their own outside mainstream political parties. The people on their own have been able to influence each other more than the political parties have and that is good because they own the struggle and struggle on their own behalf – not for political parties.

A revolution cannot be purer than that.