Moyo aims to recycle himself

The intriguing love-hate relationship between Zanu-PF and Zimbabwe’s former government spin doctor, Jonathan Moyo, which has lasted 10 years, may take another twist after Moyo’s application to rejoin the party.

Didymus Mutasa, Zanu-PF’s secretary for administration, confirmed receiving Moyo’s application letter and said he would bring it before the party’s politburo.

Mutasa has described Moyo as an “important asset” to Zanu-PF.

Moyo, a former minister of information and publicity in 2000 and now an independent MP for Tsholotsho North, has oscillated between being an ally and a critic of President Robert Mugabe.

He fell out of favour with Mugabe in November 2004 after staging the Tsholotsho “Dinyane” meeting, at which he sought to block the rise of Vice-President Joice Mujuru to power at Zanu-PF’s annual national congress.

He annoyed the ruling party further by choosing to stand as an independent candidate for Tsholotsho, contrary to Zanu-PF’s plan to field a female candidate for that constituency.

Fired from both government and the party in 2005, he has become increasingly redundant in the seven months since Zimbabwe’s new unity government was formed.

Moyo’s restoration to favour would be viewed with profound misgivings by Zimbabwean civil society, particularly its independent media.

He is viewed as the sole architect of Zimbabwe’s repressive media laws, including the notorious Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (Aippa), which has been used to oppress the country’s private newspapers.

Under Aippa, several private media houses, including The Daily News, a paper critical of the government, were closed and the operations of foreign media, such as the BBC and CNN, were banned.

Moyo has already begun repositioning himself, taking a critical stance against Morgan Tsvangirai, the Prime Minister and Movement for Democratic Change leader, and writing scathing attacks in state-owned media accusing the MDC of seeking to undermine the inclusive government by creating a “parallel” government.

He claimed in a recent editorial: “A faction of the MDC-T has been putting up an illegal parallel government since February 13 2008 with funding from the [United States] and some European governments, which have always wanted to effect illegal regime change in Zimbabwe.”

Patrick Chinamasa, the minister of justice and parliamentary affairs, said this week: “If indeed it is true, I would like to say ‘welcome home’ to [Moyo] as he has done so much for the party.

“I worked well with him, as you know, and he made an immense contribution to our fight against imperialism and neocolonialism. He ranks among the patriots in the party.”

While acknowledging Moyo’s “brilliant” use of spin, Zanu-PF analysts insist that if he is brought back into the Zanu-PF fold, he will have to “start at cell level and rise through the ranks like everyone else”.