Advice to Nelson Chamisa ahead of 2023 elections

Professor Jonathan Nathaniel Mlevu Moyo is an indefatigable political strategist, a dedicated workaholic as well as an academic of recognised creative prowess.

The objective of his latest project appears to be to pave the way to State House, Harare, for popular opposition leader, Nelson Chamisa of the Movement for Democratic Change Alliance (MDC-A).

From 2015 to 2017 Moyo served in the government of Robert Mugabe as Higher Education minister, where he was accused of acts of corruption.

Previously, he had been appointed as Information and Publicity minister from 2000 to 2005 and to the same position from 2013 to 2015.

He was elected to the National Assembly as an independent candidate in 2005 and 2008.

He reached the peak of political notoriety as the architect of the draconian Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act.

Media reports say that Moyo’s current plan of action involves creating an ingenious strategy, the Citizens’ Convergence for Change (CCC), said to be a cunning rebranding of the frenzied “Chamisa Chete Chete” (Chamisa only) mantra, as routinely chanted by youthful supporters of the MDC-A leader.

As part of the CCC project, the mercurial Moyo has reportedly offered to Chamisa’s MDC-A an opportunity to train 44 000 of the party’s polling agents for 11 000 polling stations, all appropriately approved and security cleared, in preparation for the 2023 elections.

There is an assumption that once the MDC-A polling agents attend the training programme designed by the maverick political science professor, victory at the polls is guaranteed.

The Constitutional Court dismissed a challenge lodged by the MDC-T against President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s victory over Chamisa in 2018 after the opposition party failed to produce evidence in the form of V11 forms to sustain its claims of electoral fraud.

It appears that the proposed training will address this perceived weakness.

There must be an assumption that Zanu PF and Douglas Mwonzora’s MDC-T will not train their own 44 000 polling agents each to counter Moyo’s strategy.

It has been reported that Moyo’s recent offer to the MDC-A has effectively divided the party’s top leadership.

By some coincidence, all the players are members of the legal profession.

The only member of the party’s top leadership who is not a lawyer is Charlton Hwende, the secretary-general, who is said to be on Chamisa’s side. The two are close allies.

I requested Chamisa on Friday to confirm his commitment to Moyo’s proposed training project.

Rather uncharacteristically, he did not respond.

In essence, the major beneficiary of the Citizens’ Convergence for Change would appear to be none other than Moyo himself.

As a result, he approaches the issue of rebranding himself as MDC-A with a marked determination.

The reluctance of other MDC Alliance stalwarts to jump into bed with the wayfaring don is understandable, given his track record.

Whom they choose to embrace as close political allies or advisors is, of course, the choice of individual opposition politicians.

The “marriage” of Chamisa and Moyo is apparently being consummated at a time when Chamisa’s emerging rival in opposition circles, Douglas Mwonzora of the MDC-T is under intense fire from the MDC-A as being an alleged beneficiary of Zanu PF or Mnangagwa’s benevolence.

Moyo emerged on the then extremely turbulent and polarised Zimbabwean political landscape at a time when Mugabe was under the siege of a fiery Morgan Tsvangirai-led opposition onslaught.

He can rightly claim credit for coming to Mugabe’s rescue at a time when other Zanu PF leaders were paralysed by fear of a marauding MDC-T.

He virtually single-handedly embarked on a programme to emasculate the privatelyowned press, especially the then immensely popular Daily News, which had literally become the backbone of Tsvangirai’s MDC-T.

While he strenuously denies the charge, Moyo spearheaded the enactment of the draconian AIPPA legislation, whose objective was to derail the privately owned press.

Journalists were subjected to severe harassment and wanton arrest.

His relentless onslaught on the press culminated in the closure of The Daily News in 2003, as well as of The Mirror as published by the dynamic Ibbo Mandaza and The Tribune of Kindness Paradza, now deputy minister of Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services.

More significantly, however, by the downfall in November 2017 of the man that he had taken great risk in order to prop up, Moyo had emerged as one of the kingpins in the G40 faction then surrounding the geriatric president and his ambitious first lady, Doctor Grace.

Following the downfall of Mugabe in an army facilitated coup and the emergence of Mnangagwa as successor, Moyo fled into exile.

Over the past three years of self-imposed exile, Moyo has launched a relentless social media onslaught on Mnangagwa and the Second Republic.

For Moyo, personal salvation obviously lies in the removal of Mnangagwa from office.

The most effective strategy to achieve that goal at the moment appears to reside in an alliance with Chamisa.

The MDC-A leader could become a beneficiary by default from the personal ambitions of the mercurial professor, a politician who is regarded by thousands of his compatriots with both suspicion and hostility.

The cautious approach of Chamisa’s lieutenants to a “marriage” with the professor is quite understandable, therefore.

There is a perception among some political observers that the early signs of Chamisa’s pending nuptials with Moyo could have contributed to the narrow defeat of the MDC-A leader by Mnangagwa in 2018.