By Tendai Kamhungira
War veterans’ leader Christopher Mutsvangwa has challenged Higher Education minister Jonathan Moyo to a public debate, accusing the voluble Zanu PF politburo member of fomenting power struggles in the ruling party.
Mutsvangwa and Moyo are sworn enemies, with their feud fuelled by Zanu PF succession wars.
The two have divergent views on the post President Robert Mugabe era.
“I am keen and ready to humiliate Jonso (Jonathan Moyo), the snivelling political scoundrel, to an open debate. I will surely expose the dangerously ambitious political chameleon and all his Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde antics,” Mutsvangwa said.
Mutsvangwa — chairperson of the Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans Association (ZNLWVA) — has openly stated that Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa must take over from soon-to-be 93 Mugabe.
This has widened his rift with Moyo, who is believed to be one of the kingpins of the so-called Generation 40 (G40) Zanu PF faction, which is fiercely opposed to Mnangagwa’s ascendency to power.
The Midlands godfather is embroiled in a nasty battle to succeed Mugabe, with the G40 — also known as Young Turks.
This also comes after Mutsvangwa, who was expelled from the ruling party last year for insolence, accused Moyo of deserting the war of liberation and unduly influencing Mugabe’s decisions.
“The 2013 electoral landslide has been dissipated into petulant feuding for power. The self-coined successionist sees their G40 scorched-earth economic agenda as platform for power grab,” Mutsvangwa went on.
“The stolen future of a whole well-educated youthful generation is of no bother at all. The daily diet of successionist drivel smudges twitter and the social media while abject poverty stalks the G40 benighted Zimbabwe,” he said.
Mnangagwa, while acting on presumed pressure from the G40 that accuses him of seeking to stampede Mugabe out of power before next year’s elections, was recently forced to disown Mutsvangwa and other former party cadres who are publicly backing his ascendancy to a higher office.
Mutsvangwa further dismissed Moyo as a war deserter who has no capacity to score political victory against battle-hardened former freedom fighters.
“As a war veteran who witnessed so much during the struggle, I dismiss this irregular political usurpation by a wartime deserter turned spy. Let the coward Jonso know that he is incapable of scaring anyone, let alone battle-hardened war veterans,” he said.
He went on to claim that Moyo also had ambitions to succeed Mugabe, labelling the Tsholotsho North MP a “viscerally cantankerous”.
“Compulsive plotting is a hallmark of his DNA; this engendered by an obsessive craving for the top dog position of highest station political destiny… today he rants all over the show atypical to a mad dog choked with mustard — a bridge too far from power grab even as he struts in … the physical grounds of State House.” Daily News