By Nobleman Runyanga
The disgraced and self-exiled former ZANU PF Politburo member, Professor Jonathan Moyo is desperate for revenge, relevance and favour even from some failed opposition members in order to get a foot into the Zimbabwean politics.
Many will remember how the professor, who is now a refugee in Kenya, sent his running dog and former Sunday Mail editor, Edmund Kudzayi in October to release on his micro-blogging site, Twitter handle a video on the alleged poll theft which he claimed had been committed by President Emmerson Mnangagwa and the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) during the 2018 harmonised elections. Many progressive Zimbabweans dismissed the video as a production containing nothing new or meaningful to add to the documentation on the 2018 harmonised elections. The only thing which was praiseworthy about it was the high quality of editing that went into the video’s production. It was all hot air and bottled smoke. The stunt fell flat on its face.
Bitterness, hate and hurt
Prof Moyo was obviously testing the waters with his politically grimy feet before releasing the much-talked-about book, Excelgate: How Zimbabwe’s 2018 Presidential Election was stolen. Despite the public’s thumbs down to Kudzayi’s video, the professor was in a fix because withholding the book in response to negative response from Zimbabweans would be viewed as confirmation that the project was made up and only calculated to embarrass President Mnangagwa and avenge his G40 faction’s loss to the President after Operation Restore Legacy in November 2017. Prof Moyo is so consumed by unjustified hate, hurt and vindictiveness that he had to go ahead with the book project which he is now set to release this week at the risk of yet another episode of potential embarrassment.
The President’s victory was ensured by the people of Zimbabwe, pronounced by ZEC and further confirmed by the Constitutional Court. His win was accepted by the people of Zimbabwe, the Southern African Development Community (SADC), the African Union (AU) and the world except, of course, bitter and tantrum-throwing Prof Moyo and the MDC leader, Nelson Chamisa.
Reaching out to losing Chamisa
Yes, Prof Moyo is an academic. Writing and publishing academic papers and books is, therefore, expected of him. However, trying to wring relevance using blatantly blue lies in pursuit of a narrow personal agenda against the President goes beyond the call of academic calling and responsibility.
The professor is a bitter man. He lost the opportunity to continue siphoning funds from the Zimbabwe Manpower Development Fund (ZIMDEF) because of the Operation Restore Legacy. He had plans to build the Tsholotsho Stadium using proceeds from illegally ivory obtained from poisoned elephants which occurred under the watch of his fellow G40 element and former Cabinet minister, Saviour Kasukuwere. Given this background, the refugee is missing the Government of Zimbabwe and the benefits thereof. Granted, the man is capable of resurrecting himself politically but he cannot practise his political craft in Kenya where he has no political currency and value.
This is why he badly needs to be in Zimbabwe where, sadly, charges of fleecing ZIMDEF await him. This is what is embittering him. This is what is driving him to write a book on a matter which was concluded by the Constitutional Court in August last year. The man is attempting to exact a pound of flesh from President Mnangagwa whose only crime is presiding over the Zimbabwean government which is waiting to pounce on the professor should he set foot in Zimbabwe so that he can face the country’s justice system for allegedly pilfering from the ZIMDEF.
Realising that it is not easy for him to return to the country and re-join ZANU PF, Prof Moyo’s other rationale for the book project is to warm up and appeal to MDC leader, Nelson Chamisa for possible political accommodation. Any one in his position would easily settle into a new life in Kenya far away from politics but given his very high political energy, Prof Moyo has to have a new political home in Zimbabwe which he can actively support from his Kiambu Estate refuge in Kenya.
This is why he had to string together a series of public documents and term them a book. If anything pleases Chamisa, it is the claims that he lost 2018 to President Mnangagwa due to rigging. If someone can come up with a semblance of a book on the matter (even if it is based on unproved claims) he would earn a special place in Chamisa’s heart. It was, therefore, not by coincidence that Prof Moyo claimed that Chamisa won the 2018 presidential election by 66 percent, an obviously thumb sucked figure.
It is interesting that Chamisa who participated in the poll failed to prove his poll theft claims in a competent court of law while a favour-hunting refugee professor who was away in Kenya on 30 July 2018 thumb sucked a generous percentage in his favour in line with the quantum of the political favour that he is looking for from the political failure at MDC national headquarters.
Zimbabwe has moved on
After the post-poll furore born of the MDC’s failure to accept defeat, Zimbabwe and the world moved on. Therefore an attempt to bring the matter back into public discourse through a video or book created by evidently bitter interested parties will neither stop the sun from rising nor President Mnangagwa, the government of Zimbabwe and all progressive Zimbabweans from marching forward in rebuilding their great country. Zimbabwe and the world have no time to pander to the childish whims of political losers who think that documenting baseless lies will reverse President Mnangagwa’s 2018 poll victory.
