Zimbabwe’s outspoken Minister of Information, Jonathan Moyo, has appealed against a Zanu-PF decision to exclude him from primary elections in his home district of Tsholotsho.
Moyo was told that the position will be reserved for a woman, in a move he describes as ”unfair to me and to women”.
”If Tsholotsho had indeed been reserved for women candidates only, this should have been announced publicly and in advance to give all potential qualified women in the party an equal opportunity to participate and give men due notice that they were excluded from participation,” Moyo wrote in a letter to the ruling party.
The ambitious — if controversial — minister has in recent weeks seen his strength wane as President Robert Mugabe dropped him from both the ruling party’s central committee and its powerful, Soviet-style politburo.
Once thought to be one of the most powerful men in the ruling party, Moyo fell from grace after organising an unauthorised meeting in his home district.
The meeting, which was called to back parliamentary Speaker Emmerson Mnangagwa’s appointment as second vice-president, saw several senior Zanu-PF official barred from holding office for five years after an angry Mugabe said they had broken party protocol.
Instead, he appointed Joyce Mujuru to the position of vice-president, leaving Zanu-PF with its worst split since the 1970s.
Mugabe also said last month that no Zanu-PF candidate not elected in primaries will be appointed to a Cabinet position.
Should Mugabe stick to that decision, Moyo will lose his ministerial position, as well as his posts on the central committee and politburo, before the general election set for March this year. — Sapa