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Moyo, Charamba tiff rages on

Politics
ZANU PF politburo member, Jonathan Moyo, has described President Robert Mugabe’s spokesperson George Charamba as “a rogue, factional-driven mouthpiece”, who has abandoned his official duties to pursue the ruling party’s succession fights.

ZANU PF politburo member, Jonathan Moyo, has described President Robert Mugabe’s spokesperson George Charamba as “a rogue, factional-driven mouthpiece”, who has abandoned his official duties to pursue the ruling party’s succession fights.

BY Staff Reporter

In an interview with NewsDay’s sister publication, The Standard, Moyo — widely regarded as the face of the G40 faction, said Charamba’s actions are faction-driven.

“I don’t believe that Charamba’s successionist outbursts on behalf of Vice-President Emmerson Mnangagwa represent President Mugabe in any way, shape or form. Quite clearly the cat has come out of the bag that Charamba is now a rogue presidential spokesman and everybody can see that. That’s why you guys in the media no longer take him seriously. He has become a laughing stock,” he said

This is not the first time the two have exchanged harsh words since the days they worked together with Moyo as Information minister and Charamba as his permanent secretary.

Writing in State media as Nathaniel Manheru, Charamba ordered Moyo to stay away from Zanu PF succession matrix because “this thing has its owners”.

But in response, Moyo hit back at Charamba saying he should back off, as he has allegedly done a “shoddy job” in trying to prop up Mnangagwa.

“Entitlement is not just morally and legally wrong, but it is also evil. So only an idiot can say on behalf of fellow idiots that ‘this thing has its owners’ . The liberation war was not fought to turn certain individuals like VP Mnangagwa into manifestos. That’s insanity,” he said.

“So, I want to repeat and make it very clear that anyone who thinks or believes that who comes after President Mugabe has already been decided is an idiot. This is for the simple, but very important reason that the decision on who will succeed President Mugabe, when the time comes, will be decided not by a self-selecting cabal, but by the people of Zimbabwe in terms of the Constitution. So it’s not about me, but about the people of Zimbabwe who will decide as they constitutionally must.

“Who is Charamba outside their mafia-like scheme? Who is he? He is said to be controlling and running all Zimpapers titles. Just look at how incompetent he actually is and how he is, in fact, their own worst enemy because he has dismally failed to package their successionist messages with the most telling example being how he botched up VP Mnangagwa’s mug fiasco about a 10pm Christmas gift-opening family affair getting invaded by intruders like Energy Mutodi masquerading as an MP at a time when VP Mnangagwa was acting President,” Moyo said.

Both Moyo and Charamba were unreachable for comment yesterday.