Jonathan Moyo does the impossible again

Jonathan Moyo has done the impossible again. He is back in government though he lost his Tsholotsho seat in the 31 July elections courtesy of President Robert Mugabe.

The former Information Minister is back in his old post and Minister of Media, Information and Broadcasting Services, and once again as a non-constituency member.

Moyo was very clear about his mission: “With this appointment you feel like hitting the ground running,” he told The Herald. “I am coming to do any assignment given by my boss. I am coming in as Team ZANU-PF and Team ZANU-PF has a captain.”

What is not clear is whether Mugabe is doing Moyo a favour or returning a favour. Either way, the question remains, for doing what?

Moyo was catapulted to the government in 2000 after lobbying for the new constitution which was rejected in a national referendum in February 2000, but was appointed Minister of Information and Publicity.

He revolutionised that ministry, fired all the old editors and replaced them with young reporters, introduced 100 percent local content on radio and television and became official government spokesman, shutting out nearly everyone else.

He lost favour in 2005 after he refused to stand down for a woman candidate for the Tsholotsho seat which he won as an independent.

But Moyo had lost favour after the 2004 Tsholotsho Declaration during which a number of ZANU-PF leaders had objected to the appointment of Joice Mujuru as vice-President of the party and was supposedly asked not to contest the Tsholotsho seat as a punishment.

Moyo held onto the Tsholotsho seat as an independent in the 2008 elections but returned to ZANU-PF the following year and was soon brought back to the politburo.

Moyo’s comeback was unprecedented in the history of ZANU-PF raising questions as to why Mugabe found him so useful to re-admit him to the party.

Whispers said Moyo was readmitted to spearhead Mugabe’s re-election campaign. The whispers said Moyo was handy because he had been heavily involved in Movement for Democratic Change leader Morgan Tsvangirai’s 2008 campaign. The whispers even said Moyo, a composer in his own right, was responsible for the Morgan is More campaign strategy.

If this was true then, Moyo is adequately being rewarded because he delivered. But how?

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