Prof Moyo blasts foreign embassies
ZANU-PF Politburo member Professor Jonathan Moyo yesterday castigated the United States and European Union Embassies in Zimbabwe for meddling in the country’s internal affairs and behaving like opposition parties in violation of their terms of reference.
Addressing the Bulawayo Press Club, Prof Moyo said the embassies were working with opposition parties who have recently been engaging in violent demonstrations that caused destruction of property in the country.
He said the main agenda of the violent demonstrations carried out under various hash tags ranging from #Tajamuka and #MyZimbabwe fronted by the MDC-T and #ThisFlag fronted by Pastor Evan Mawarire, were an attempt to frustrate the Government from implementing its policies.
He said after Pastor Mawarire was given false credit for organising the July 6 stayaway carefully arranged to coincide with a civil service strike which had no relation to his campaign, the opposition felt the attention of their Western handlers had shifted to the pastor.
“The American ambassador and the EU ambassador were very supportive of this (#ThisFlag). When the EU and American ambassadors support something, the opposition think it’s what God has made, they follow like the gospel.
“Zimbabwean politics is determined by what the ambassadors do and say that is why some of them take themselves to the action like the French ambassador. I have been fighting the EU and American ambassadors.
“I’m shocked by the things they tweet, they tweet like they are opposition politicians in our country, they don’t tweet like ambassadors,” said Prof Moyo.
“An issue has arisen which has not been properly examined as to what are the implications on the Vienna Convention arising from social media because the ambassadors, in particular the American and EU ambassadors, are using social media in ways that are blatantly in violation of the Vienna Convention which they would not do outside social media.
But social media is a universe, it’s like the virtual world and real world. What they can’t do in the real world they are doing in the virtual world and it’s raising serious new questions.”
Prof Moyo said the opposition, rattled by #Thisflag, went on the ground and started embarking on violent demonstrations.
“Basically they want to trigger a situation where the state takes certain measures and they say look they are now interfering with our rights,” he said.
Dismissing calls for electoral reforms by opposition parties under the banner of NERA, Prof Moyo said some of them were part of the constitution-making process during the days of the Global Political Agreement where the Electoral Act was amended but were now showing their true colours as electoral cowards.
The Tsholotsho North legislator also cited what he called the “Mujuru factor” as responsible for shrinking the Government’s policy implementation space soon after the July 2013 elections.
“What we can now confidently describe as the Mujuru factor emerged and caused pre-occupation. This was the first major attack that shrunk the policy space because clearly the Mujuru factor had a different agenda of grabbing power,” said Prof Moyo. “The people associated with that cabal were not preoccupied with policy implementation, they were preoccupied with power grabbing and it is very dangerous the day after an election to be preoccupied with grabbing power. It quickly builds inertia in the system especially where you can create impressions that have
trappings of believability.” A FAMILY at a house in Mkoba’s Village 13 in Gweru is living in fear after a mysterious fire recently started from an egg and destroyed property, one of many strange blazes at the property since 2013.
The frightening occurrences at the house sometimes force the family to sleep in the open.
On Thursday, the family alleges that a mysterious egg under a bed triggered the fire that destroyed a bed, blankets, a television set, electrical appliances, a kitchen unit, chairs, the bedroom’s roof and windows.
The Fire Brigade said the latest fire, which is said to have started at around 12PM, “did not add up.”
When The Chronicle news crew visited Number 1225/2 Mkoba Village 13 yesterday, the owner of the two-roomed house, Mr Philip Hlabati, said he was convinced that the egg that was under the bed was the source of the fire. He said the mysterious fires have been tormenting his family since 2013.
“As you can see, the house was burnt by a fire on Thursday. Property in the bedroom and kitchen was burnt as you can see and we have nothing,” he said.
“In the morning (Thursday) we saw an egg under the bed. We didn’t have eggs in the house and it’s not possible that the egg could have rolled from the kitchen. Worse I don’t have chickens. Next thing around midday, the fire started from the bed and spread throughout the house. We lost the bed, blankets, electrical gadgets and food.”
Mr Hlabati said in 2013, their house was once engulfed by a fire which started from a travelling bag that was on top of a wardrobe.
He said he had no solution to the bizarre fires as he had even tried praying to no avail.
“The Fire Brigade was called in but by the time they arrived, most of the property had been destroyed. They also said they were puzzled as to how the fire started,” he said.
“The room is as it is with the burnt stuff. It’s rather awkward that I have to share the kitchen with my grown up daughter because we are not using the bedroom since this is a two-roomed house.
“After the fire started some people said they had seen an egg fall from the roof accompanied by a note saying, “Hausati watanga” (You will suffer). But we looked for the letter and we haven’t seen it. So I don’t know what is happening. This is all a mystery to us and we need assistance as a matter of urgency.”
A neighbour, Mr Andrew Takada, said they were no longer surprised by the odd fires.
“We were shocked when the first fire was first reported in 2013, but from there on, we have just been watching. Something is wrong. No one in the area can explain the origins of the fire. We are all baffled,” he said.
Gweru Chief Fire Officer, Mr Emmanuel Musemwa, said they were called to the house on Thursday, but the cause of the fire remains unknown.
“We tried linking the fire with electricity or to some other negligence but it didn’t add up. It’s not an electrical fault. So the cause is unknown. We hear strange things happen at that house and fires mysteriously start,” he said. — -@pchitumba1
He said a number of members of the Mujuru cabal were crafty in creating falsehoods to the effect that she was anointed to take over from President Mugabe singling out Mr Didymus Mutasa and Mr Rugare Gumbo as peddlers of those lies.
Prof Moyo said the overtures by the Mujuru cabal after the elections to the 2014 Congress in December frustrated the Government’s policy implementation drive with some deliberately working against the country.
“One thing if you have noticed about Zimbabwean politics unlike politics in some other more progressive, more dynamic countries is that if you are opposing something and in this case if you are opposing a leader who is in charge and has been entrusted with the power to be in charge by the people, the only way the politicians in Zimbabwe have worked out to do is make sure nothing works.
“This is a very Zimbabwean thing, opposition in Zimbabwe whether its internal to parties or external is driven by a negative logic that be against everything that is good and be for nothing yourself. That’s the only chance you have of taking over, you can only take over if it’s not working. If it’s working the bar is very high because you have to promise better.”
Prof Moyo said Mujuru while supposed to supervise success in the implementation of policy, was brewing failure in the Government as stones were thrown against indigenisation, a cornerstone of the Zanu-PF manifesto which had won the party elections resoundingly.
Besides the two factors, Prof Moyo said the Government’s policy implementation drive was affected by the succession politics within Zanu-PF which he said were more destructive than the Western imposed sanctions.
He, however, said for the remaining period before the elections, the Government would not allow any elements to throw spanners in its policy implementation drive.
Prof Moyo said housing, SMEs, agriculture and innovations in science and technology were expected to create the promised jobs and boost the economy.