FORMER Cabinet minister Jonathan Moyo has sensationally declared that Zimbabwe will be plunged into bloodshed if the international community fails to remove President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s government.
BY OBEY MANAYITI
In an interview with Reuters news agency on Friday from an unknown location, Moyo described Mnangagwa’s government as illegitimate while calling for the intervention of the international community.
He did not however state whether the source of the “bloodshed” would come from within or outside the country.
Moyo also claimed that Mugabe never signed his alleged resignation letter, claiming he was forced out at gunpoint by the military.
He said there was urgent need for the United Nations and the African Union to intervene and remove the Mnangagwa government to avoid the opening of floodgates to conflict.
“If you [UN and AU] don’t intervene when there has been such an outrageous, brazen attack on a constitutional order, you are simply opening the floodgates to conflict,” Moyo said in the interview with Reuters.
“If they don’t act, just as the sun will rise tomorrow, Zimbabwe will be another Somalia. There will be bloodshed,” he declared.
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Moyo’s threats, warnings and other recent utterances have largely been dismissed as sour grapes although government at one time sought to have him gagged by his supposed hosts, Kenya. It later turned out however that Moyo was not in Kenya and that nobody seems to know where he is speaking from in posts on Twitter.
Asked to comment on Moyo’s bloodshed threats, presidential spokesperson George Charamba yesterday said Moyo was now irrelevant and not worth his time anymore.
“Can I be allowed to decline to comment on Jonathan? I think I have better things to worry about,” he said. “I am finished with him. He is not an issue for this country and he can run and rattle because he has that time. He is not worried about things that I am worried about. How do I continue commenting on a bitter man without myself sounding bitter? I am done with him.”
Zimbabwe Defence Forces spokesperson Colonel Overson Mugwisi requested questions in writing. He, however, said Moyo needed to explain what he meant.
“This matter has nothing to do with us. Ask him, he is the one alleging that,” Mugwisi said. “Is he being prophetic or it’s his prediction [about bloodshed]. Please ask him about his predictions and not me. I don’t see where we can fit here. People can dream. Ask him about his dreams.”
War veterans spokesperson Douglas Mahiya said Moyo’s remarks pointed to wishful thinking.
“Maybe Jonathan Moyo and the G40 cabal had amassed a lot of money through corruption and they want to use that money to hire mercenaries and cause chaos in Zimbabwe. If they cannot do that then Zimbabwe, politically or otherwise, is not going to degenerate to that level at all,” he said.
“Our strength is based on the people and the principles of the revolution of Zimbabwe. The principles are meant to meet the political and economic objectives of the people of Zimbabwe and this is what the people of Zimbabwe are doing as the basis for the development of our society.
“The degeneration aspect is the wishful thinking of the enemies of Zimbabwe. All he has done is to declare himself an enemy to this state.”
Zanu PF secretary for youth affairs, Pupurai Togarepi said although the country must be vigilant, Moyo’s remarks could no longer be taken seriously because he was a bitter man who failed to destroy the whole Zanu PF institution.
“Jonathan Moyo had always had a project to destroy Zanu PF and the former president. He wanted everything to be destroyed at one go but unfortunately, he destroyed only one person who is the former president. He couldn’t destroy Zanu PF and he is bitter. In his mind and in his hallucinations, he wanted the whole institution to crumble with the former president and he failed to do that,” Togarepi said.
“He must realise that he is wasting his time and he must introspect and realise that he was up against a very strong institution that cannot be destroyed by someone who is greedy and vengeful for his own reasons. He must just go hang.”
Last week Patrick Zhuwao, another key member of the G40 faction and a close friend of Moyo, said there would be an uprising in the country and that a movement would emerge to fight Mnangagwa’s government.
“There is a groundswell of the #2018Resistance. The #2018Resistance is growing by the minute. The #2018Resistance is sprouting throughout Zimbabwe; like mushroom. The #2018Resistance is permeating across all sectors. The #2018Resistance is pervasive throughout the generations,” he said.
Yesterday, Zhuwao warned the opposition to be on the lookout and refuse to be goaded into supporting the Mnangagwa government.
He said there must never be postponement of elections amid reports that Mnangagwa is seeking to postpone elections by three years.
Mnangagwa rose to power in November last year after briefly escaping into exile when he was fired as vice-president.
He was locked in a bitter succession war with the G40 faction whose kingpins included Moyo, Saviour Kasukuwere, Zhuwao and former first lady Grace Mugabe.
Mnangagwa assumed power after the military led Operation Restore Legacy was launched, targeting “criminals” around Mugabe. This resulted in the resignation of Mugabe and the scattering of G40 faction leaders who fled to unknown destinations.
