/ 10 May 2006

Zanu-PF power struggle goes to court

The power struggle within Zimbabwe’s ruling Zanu-PF party over President Robert Mugabe’s succession was brought to the High Court on Tuesday in a case in which former state information czar Jonathan Moyo is suing two senior members of the ruling party for defamation.

Moyo is suing Zanu-PF chairperson John Nkomo and a senior member of the party’s inner politburo Cabinet, Dumiso Dabengwa, for defaming him when they allegedly told Mugabe that he had funded and led the hatching of a ”coup plot” against the veteran president last year.

The former information minister, who was dismissed from the government in a bitter fallout over the alleged ”coup plot”, is demanding Z$2-billion in damages from his erstwhile colleagues.

The alleged coup plot refers to attempts by Moyo and other senior Zanu-PF leaders at the time to try to block the appointment of Joyce Mujuru as second vice-president of Zanu-PF and subsequently Zimbabwe.

Moyo, Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa and six provincial chairpersons were backing former parliamentary speaker Emmerson Mnangagwa for the vice-president’s post, seen as a crucial stepping stone to the top job.

The plot to prop up Mnangagwa fell through after it was discovered by Mugabe and other members of the Zanu-PF old guard who threw their weight behind Mujuru and accused those who had attempted to block her rise of scheming to topple the party leadership.

Moyo was later fired from the government while the six Zanu-PF chairpersons were suspended for five years each. Chinamasa, however, was spared after he apologised to Mugabe.

Moyo, who began giving his evidence-in-chief in court on Tuesday by narrating events leading to him joining the government and later his dismissal from it, will argue in court that Nkomo and Dabengwa defamed him when they told Mugabe that he plotted to topple the Zanu-PF leadership.

He will further argue that the two had falsely claimed that he had received unspecified sums of money sourced from foreign persons or countries hostile to Zimbabwe.

The case will see confidential documents — including minutes of several Zanu-PF committees and confidential party correspondence — being produced as evidence in court. — ZimOnline