EXILED former Zanu PF politburo member, Jonathan Moyo has escalated his campaign for MDC Alliance presidential candidate, Nelson Chamisa to give the ruling party leader, President Emmerson Mnangagwa a rude awakening in the upcoming presidential race.
BY SILAS NKALA
Moyo, who has coined a social media campaign titled #KwekweHimJuly30, is mobilising opposition supporters to embarrass Mnangagwa the same way he fell to underdog, Blessing Chebundo of the MDC in 2000 and 2005 Kwekwe Central elections.
Moyo, the former Tsholotsho North legislator, is one of the Zanu PF G40 members, who were hounded out of the party and government, when the military launched Operation Restore Legacy, which saw former President Robert Mugabe resigning.
Writing on his Twitter account, Moyo at the weekend said: “#JustThinking: If a united Kwekwe did it not once, but twice to vote out #EmmersonMnangagwa in 2000 and 2005 with #BlessingChebundo; Zim can also unite as one grand national union and do a big Kwekwe on Mnangagwa with @nelsonchamisa in 2018!” Mnangagwa is a two-time loser of Kwekwe constituency to the MDC candidate, Chebundo.
Mnangagwa has a history of electoral defeats, having been defeated by Chebundo in the 2000 parliamentary elections in the battle for Kwekwe constituency, but he was voted in as Speaker of Parliament. In the March 2005 parliamentary elections, he was again defeated by Chebundo in Kwekwe, and Mugabe appointed him to an unelected seat.
In the March 2008 parliamentary election, Mnangagwa stood as Zanu PF’s candidate in the new Chirumanzu-Zibagwe rural constituency and won, receiving 9 645 votes against two MDC candidates, Mudavanhu Masendeke and Thomas Michael Dzingisai, who respectively, received 1 548 and 894 votes. Moyo said if Mnangagwa could be defeated in his home area, what could stop Chamisa from defeating him in the presidential polls.
Twitter users had mixed reactions to Moyo’s tweet, with Amin Matola saying: “I am perplexed by how the opposition gets so excited when
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@ProfJNMoyo offers them unsolicited advice. Is this not a man who was treacherous and betrayed the people of Tsholotsho and the MDC after the 2008 elections. Once Zanu PF will always be Zanu PF?”
He said Moyo should not seek to drag everyone into his personal vendettas.
“He should carry his cross. It’s not like he resigned from Zanu PF, but he was expelled! If November 25 had not happened, he would be singing Zanu PF praises,” he tweeted.
A Mahlatsi defended Moyo saying: “At the moment, he is on the same footing with the opposition… ED and the junta government had betrayed us for 38 years, more than what Moyo did.”
Evan Mangwende said: “We just need to bury our small differences and declare ED illegitimate again for good. Yes, if Kwekwe has done it before for a reason, Zimbabwe as a whole can do it too. Send ED to the scrap yard. No to coup rule in Zim.”
MacDonald Mugwazeni said “Prof, I may forgive you. But first tell us how the election was rigged in 2013. Did the ballot paper react to ink?”
Paidamoyo Mutsvairo tweeted that: “Zimbabweans will vote for ED because of his commitment to reviving the economy.
