"Unanimous" Endorsement For Readmission of Jonathan Moyo Into ZANU PF

Readmitted: Jonathan Moyo was unanimously taken back into ZANU PF by the Politburo yesterday. He is already hard at work putting together strategies and propaganda to get Mugabe's majority in parliament back. His acceptance also means that ZANU PF has now gained another seat in parliament without having to hold a by-election.

Harare, Zimbabwe, 03 October 2009

As was to be expected, ZANU PF has announced that there was unanimous endorsement of the decision to readmit Professor Jonathan Moyo into ZANU PF.

The announcement was made by Ephraim Masawi of ZANU PF on Friday.

As I revealed a few days ago, this was inevitable, after Mugabe had taken Moyo back into confidence even before the deliberations of the ZANU PF Politburo on his application to rejoin the party.

Information was leaked to us that Moyo had already been made a Communications Commissioner in the President's office. This, we were told, was done because Mugabe did not need to notify anybody or consult anyone about people he appointed to his own office.

Only the head of the Public Service Commission would have needed to be informed so that the new Commissioner could be put on government payroll.

Now that Moyo is back in ZANU PF, Mugabe awaits the pull-out of the MDC from the Inclusive Government, which will give him the excuse to reshuffle his cabinet. When that happens, you can rest assured that Moyo will be given back his old job as Minister of Information and Publicity.

At a workshop I attended in Harare this last week, even the MDC delegate attending the same workshop said to me that he believes Jonathan Moyo to be a master of propaganda.

One implication of Moyo's readmission into ZANU PF is that Mugabe's party immediately adds one more seat to its seats in parliament. With the whittling down of the MDC majority through arrests and prosecutions, this should give the opposition cause for concern.

Tsvangirai can not take the support of Arthur Mutambara's 10 MPs for granted. Mutambara and his party have a very dim view of Tsvangirai and it is by no means guaranteed that the party would vote with Tsvangirai's party in parliament.

In fact, you will recall that during the election of the Speaker of Parliament, Professor Mutambara's party had struck a deal with ZANU PF, where ZANU PF MPs as well as the Mutambara legislators were to vote for Paul Themba Nyati for the Speaker post. 

Tsvangirai worked hard and through the nights to scupper that alliance. He won out in the end and later sought to reward his point man in the Mutambara faction in parliament, MP Bhebhe, with a ministerial post when he announced his choices for cabinet.

Mutambara objected and Tsvangirai was forced to dump Bhebhe.

Now, however, Bhebhe has finally been expelled from the MDC Mutambara party and has thrown his lot in with Tsvangirai.

Still, even if the expelled MPs from Mutambara's party win back their seats on an MDC-Tsvangirai ticket, the spectre of by-elections, especially those in Manicaland, means that the MDC should not expect to enjoy its majority in parliament for very long.

You are about to see an escalation in ZANU PF propaganda with the return of the Professor. His brief is to help ensure that ZANU PF claws back a majority in parliament.