Tendai Chabvuta: Remembering Zimbabwe’s 2017 coup….. Jonathan Moyo’s COMING out

By Tendai Chabvuta

So, Jonathan Moyo finally “came out” in Alex Magaisa’s BSR on Sunday, 11 November. There have been mixed reactions with some applauding the interview and others castigating the former Minister for all sorts of reasons.

Mine is not to judge the BSR because I think Alex has an important role to play in terms of information dissemination and analysis of the Zimbabwe political arena.

What I have issues with is the content of Jonathan Moyo’s responses. Crass, arrogant, seemingly invincible, unrepentant, manipulating and devoid of hunhu (morals and ethics) is a bevy of words that I could only think of to describe his responses in that interview.

Jonathan Moyo wants to portray a picture of being invincible when he is asked whether Mugabe knew about the coup and failed to prevent it. He says Mugabe knew about but did not think that Mnangagwa and Chiwenga would pull it off. That is his opinion, but I think the truth of the matter is that Mugabe knew he was finished and there was nothing he could do about it.

Neither could Mugabe’s lieutenants do anything either. If they could, then they were sloppy. The other side of the story told by the coup plotters paints a picture that they were resisted but they triumphed leading to the attacks and killings that happened on the coup day and soon after.

It is not news also that there are stories of the police led by Augustine Chihuri trying to effect an ambush arrest on Chiwenga on his return from a trip to China. If that was not resistance from Mugabe, then I am Moses from the Bible. Jonathan Moyo wants people to read a picture that Mugabe and his acolytes were and are invincible. The coup came, and it happened, the rest is history.

Jonathan Moyo has a history of arrogance and spewing trash whenever he opens his mouth. Whenever he says “with all due respect” in the interview you can expect to receive a barrage of verbal munitions from him. He rightly argues that it is his inalienable right to join a political party of his choice and no one should or has qualms with that.

What is problematic though and what I find arrogant is the way he wants to behave as if he is the only person who appreciates that he must be allowed to join any grouping of his choice. We all have that inalienable right, what is problematic though is saying you are principled and then you sup with the devil under the guise that you want to “reform them within”. That is pure nonsense!

Then there is the issue of a grown man who lacks “hunhu” or ubuntu as they would say. He mentions that Mugabe did not respect him when it came to the issue of the coup and information about Chiwenga and Mnangagwa. So, if Mugabe did not respect him with that issue, what else did he not pay attention to when Jonathan Moyo engaged him?

If he did not command that kind of respect from Mugabe why did he then stay on in such an environment? Jonathan stayed in there with the coup plotters who he says he was “very close to” and also those with the fake PHDs that tried to “decimate” the coup plotters.

He wants to play victim but this guy, this man, this Professor lacks morals. Haatorina hunhu and that is why he stayed and supped with these people he complains about today when they didn’t respect him and even wanted to kill him.

Jonathan Moyo talks about amending the ZANU PF constitution, but you can see from between the lines that whatever they were doing it was ultimately meant to change the Zimbabwe constitution and political arena. The idea of amending the ZANU PF constitution was for him a way to get his gang of Four into the presidium but he failed to see that the coup plotters had the same line of thinking albeit for a different person.

He is not being sincere with the truth and s being too economical with his words on why Mnangagwa tricked him on the constitution and why Chiwenga as now know towing him and telling to defer to “Shumba”. Jonathan was outwitted by the coup plotters and he didn’t see it coming because he had set his mind on an Oppah Vice Presidency.

Jonathan Moyo is an opportunist who tried his luck with Sydney Sekermayi and it backfired. He laments that Sekeramayi did not bite the bait. But for God’s sake, mdara Sydney is past his sell by date. He is old and would not have changed Zimbabwe’s fortunes by even a dint.

What Jonathan Moyo says about Sydney Sekeramayi sells out his hypocrisy and opportunism in ZANU PF’s politics. He on one end tries to sell a Generation 40 gimmick which was all a ruse to get his gang of Kasukuwere, Zhuwao and the motormouth Grace into Government but with the protection of the old guard. It failed, the other geezers saw it and they stopped it right in its tracks. Still Jonathan Moyo thinks he had a bright idea. What rubbish!

Jonathan Moyo talks about his father, he mentions Gukurahundi and how the military tried to murder him. All these issues put together do not speak to each other one bit. What he reveals is someone who has failed dismally to choose his battles and which side to fight from. He smacks of a person who sheds tears with one eye and the other one wide open smiling at ZIMDEF as he is accused.

Jonathan Moyo speaks of the Men and Women of Letters. He surrounded himself with those who have never read at all like Grace Mugabe and he was comfortable with the arrangement. The crass behaviour he tries to present here by defending Grace Mugabe is abominable. He was close to her and they worked on the Interface rallies together.

One mind thinks that he was the brains behind what Grace Mugabe did but unfortunately that one was just too thick to learn anything. You could tell from the way she used to mix Shona and English with that fake accent and it always was going to be a big disaster. Jonathan Moyo tries too hard to sell ZANU PF’s internal problems as a national issue. It will never fly.

Next time we would want to hear more stories about the disappearance of Itai Dzamara; how and where Jonathan Moyo got money to survive in the crazy Zimbabwe economy; what happened to the Daily News when it was bombed; how much money he was paid to do all the work for ZANU PF etc. He is a part of the mess that Zimbabwe finds itself in today and cannot try to avoid censure, blame or questions.

The BSR has done well to start these conversations. We now await to see what will be in Jonathan Moyo’s memoirs and the letters to his father. He just better be careful not to dance on his father’s grave with letters full of hypocrisy, lies, deceit and unethical banter not fit conversations between father and son.

You can visit Tendai Chabvuta’s blog here