Jonathan Moyo confirms Grace Mugabe wanted to be Chamisa’s deputy as the two fall out

Former Higher Education Minister Jonathan Moyo has confirmed that former First Lady Grace Mugabe wanted to be Movement for Democratic Change Alliance leader Nelson Chamisa’s deputy in the Grand National Union that opposition parties mooted before the 30 July elections but he fell out with her when he advised her against that.

He said this in a statement published by ZimLive.Com in which he blasted Grace Mugabe for trying to pull everyone to back President Emmerson Mnangagwa simply because he hired a plane for her to fly from Singapore to Zimbabwe to bury her mother, Idah Marufu, who died last month.

Moyo said Grace cut him off from communicating with her on 10 June.

“She did this in an angry response to advice I had respectfully and privately offered to her in writing, against her toxic and polarising wishes to lead the NPF in general and, in particular, against her then active but divisive push to be seconded by the NPF as a vice president in what had been proposed as a Grand National Union (GNU) of opposition forces ahead of the July 30 election. My contact with Mrs Mugabe was slim prior to 10 June, and none since then,” Moyo said.

Grace Mugabe seems to have upset Jonathan Moyo through her remarks at her mother’s burial on Saturday which were published in yesterday’s Standard newspaper.

Describing herself as one of the people most hurt by the November 2017 military intervention, the former First Lady said: “Yes, what happened indeed happened. We must move on. We must learn to forgive each other. I have forgiven them. If the person who was affected most can forgive, how about you?  I am talking to those who are busy attacking President Mnangagwa, let us move on and support him. Let us pray for him.”

Jonathan Moyo and Chamisa are at the forefront of attacking Mnangagwa arguing that he stole the election from Chamisa and is therefore not the legitimate leader of the country.

Moyo said in his statement: “The remarks attributed to her in the Standard story are significant only in so far as they betray her lack of political experience, and the toxic, polarising and damaging consequences thereof…..

“People who are national leaders or who aspire for national leadership must, above everything else, be truthful and sensitive. This is a fundamental human quality that has eluded politics in ZANU-PF which remains dominated by the old-guard and stockholder mentality of entitlement for selected individuals and their families. Not only ZANU-PF but the country is then supposed to be synonymous with these individuals and their personal and family interests. If these individuals and their families are fine, Zimbabwe must also be fine.

“It is an absurd corruption of public morality, values and ethos for Mrs Mugabe to claim that Mnangagwa’s gesture to hire a fancy private plane to fly her from Singapore and to pay for her mother’s funeral constitutes a political paradigm for the country to move on. Narcissism cannot be the basis for politics.

“Mrs Mugabe was indeed well within her rights to thank Mnangagwa for assisting her family at a time of need, but she had no rhyme or reason or right to turn that into a national cause.”

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