The Zimbabwean

August 27 2015

It is a noble thing that human rights defenders, clergymen, political parties and other like-minded stakeholders have kept the abduction of Itai Dzamara alive by holding prayer meetings for him in different parts of the country.

It is also laudable that diplomats continue to issue statements to remind President Robert Mugabe and his government of their constitutional obligation to establish the facts surrounding the disappearance of the journalist-turned-political activist.

My heart bleeds for Itai’s abduction. He was a friend and I found him very articulate when we shared the platform on radio talk shows. He had gusto and clarity of vision. I also admired his combative spirit when he organised and led the Occupy Africa Unity Square demos. I naturally empathised with him and his family when, on March 9, I learnt of his disappearance. I went through a similar episode on September 9, 2002 and know what such an ordeal means to family, friends and compatriots.

However, it seems that there is something missing in these separate campaigns by those who respect human rights and democratic governance. I am firmly persuaded that, for the campaigns to have a global reach, they must go beyond Itai and factor in other people who have met the same fate, or are victims of Zanu (PF)’s contempt for human rights.

Unaccounted for

Over the decades, dozens of people who were deemed critical of or a threat to Mugabe and his party disappeared. Some were later found dead. Others remain unaccounted for to date. Names that readily come to mind are Tonderai Ndira, an MDC activist whose body was discovered some time after he disappeared in 2008, Maxwell Ncube, an MDC-N election agent who was found axed in August 2011, Patrick Nabanyama, who disappeared and was found dead. He was David Coltart’s election agent in 2000.

Then there are scores of unsung opposition supporters or candidates who just disappeared into thin air. Their families are still wondering what happened to them. Add to that numerous other prominent cases of disappearances and obvious murders that happened prior to the formation of the MDC in 1999.

These include Rashiwe Guzha, who was ostensibly killed by a senior CIO officer, Captain Nleya, in the 1980s for reportedly holding dark secrets on poaching by senior government and Zanu (PF) heavies. Thousands also disappeared during the ‘80s Gukurahundi blitz that killed more than 20,000 according to CCJP.

Painful mystery

Widows still wondering what happened totheir sons and daughters cannot understand what happened to their fathers or mothers. They will forever hold a big lump in their hearts for growing up in incomplete families—if they were not orphaned in the first place—because of the abductions, torture, disappearances and murder.

Thus, prayer meetings that are currently taking place in memory of Itai, whose whereabouts remain a painful mystery, must go beyond this. They must be all-embracing and bring in the names and memories of those I have listed above and many more victims. There is therefore need to transform the Dzamara prayer meetings into a national convention that honours the unsung victims and reminds the sitting government of how much blood is dripping from its hands. My hope is that, one day, we will see human rights defenders and pro-democracy stakeholders remembering Itai among thousands of others who have been killed, maimed or tortured.
By limiting the prayer meetings to Itai, the conveners run into the obvious danger of localising the extent of the intransigencies of Mugabe and Zanu (PF) in the eyes of Zimbabweans and the rest of the world. It gives the impression that this is the only human rights contravention that we have suffered.

Yes, Itai’s abduction is gruesome and must be condemned in the angriest of tones, but we need to broaden the tent to include those other victims. Once that is done, opposition political parties will escape the real possibility of being interpreted as capitalising on a sad event for their own political mileage. They would have displayed the capacity to remember beyond recent events.

Newsday

August 24 2015

THE government is under pressure to reduce its wage bill, but this should be done in a fair and transparent manner. Finance minister Patrick Chinamasa announced that Treasury wanted to cut the share of civil servants salaries by half from about 83% to 40% of the National Budget.

The expenditure on government salaries is an albatross on the economy and cannot be sustained for a long time.

Chinamasa was not clear on how the wage bill would be reduced by 50% when he presented his mid-term fiscal policy review, but Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare minister Prisca Mupfumira was quoted categorically saying there would be no retrenchments.

However, the Zimbabwe Teachers’ Association (Zimta) on Friday claimed that 1 000 had lost their jobs after the government carried out a head count early this year in an effort to establish the exact number of civil servants.

The headcount was carried despite a more scientific audit of the civil service during the inclusive government era that exposed more than 75 000 ghost workers on the payroll.

The audit, carried out by Ernst&Young (India), revealed that most of these ghost workers were employed by the Youth and Indigenisation ministry ahead of the 2013 elections.

Speculation was rife that these people were recruited to campaign for Zanu PF ahead of the make-or-break polls.

Under normal circumstances, this would have been a low hanging fruit for the government to reduce its wage bill by getting rid of ghost workers, but in typical Zanu PF fashion, properly recruited and trained teachers are being targeted.

The teachers have not received their salaries despite the fact that they were at work during the previous school term.

Teachers in Zimbabwe are already a demoralised lot amid persistent complaints about poor salaries and working conditions. According to issues tabled at the Zimta annual conference held in Harare at the weekend, teachers are also unhappy about loss of bargaining power and unfulfilled promises made by the government concerning their conditions of service.

Primary and Secondary Education minister Lazarus Dokora has also been introducing unending policy changes that have left teachers confused at many levels.

All this is happening at a time when the education sector has been showing signs of recovery after the hyperinflation induced crisis that reached its climax in 2009.

Teachers left the country in droves to seek better employment opportunities in neighbouring countries and those who remained had no motivation to teach.

Former Education minister David Coltart did exceptional work to restore some normalcy in the education sector, but the wheels have started to come off again largely because of Dokora’s disruptive policies.

The uncertainty caused by the government’s clandestine retrenchment exercise disguised as an onslaught against ghost workers would further destabilise the education system.

In case the Zanu PF government is unhappy with the findings of the Ernst&Young (India) investigation, it should commission its own audit that should pass the transparency, fairness and accuracy test.

President Robert Mugabe’s government has polluted the civil service by planting its acolytes and compromised professionalism, which makes it difficult to trust that the removal of civil servants from the payroll is being carried out in a fair manner.

The government has to guard against disrupting the education sector by haphazardly removing teachers from the payroll.

The exercise also raises many questions because it is mostly teachers who are being removed from the payroll yet the audit pointed out that the ghost workers were mainly found in the Youth ministry.

VOA News

August 10 2015

WASHINGTON DC

Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe on Monday said foreign vandals were responsible for the death of the country’s famous lion, Cecil.

Addressing thousands of people gathered to honor the country’s heroes at the national shrine, Mr. Mugabe said Zimbabweans had failed in their responsibility to protect Cecil, who was killed by American hunter Walter Palmer in an illegal hunt.

“Even Cecil the lion – he is yours. He’s dead. But you have yours to protect and you failed to protect him,” said Mr. Mugabe.

“They are vandals who come from all over of course. Some may be just ordinary visitors, but (there are) others who want to vandalize, to irregularly and illegally acquire part of our resources.”

The killing of the lion caused a worldwide outcry with over 200,000 Americans appealing to the White House to extradite professional hunter, Palmer, to Zimbabwe for killing the big cat. More than one million people have also signed a petition on Care2 Petitions website calling for justice for Cecil and an end of trophy hunting.

Some legal experts say it may take weeks, months or years for the United States to extradite Palmer to Zimbabwe.

Zimbabwe’s former attorney general, Sobusa Gula Ndebele, and former Education Minister, David Coltart, told Studio 7 recently that Palmer’s sought extradition will be a test case for an Extradition Treaty signed by the two nations in 1997.

Article One of the Treaty obligates the two countries to “extradite to the other, pursuant to the provisions of the Treaty, any person charged with or convicted of an extraditable offense in the requesting state.”

Another provision of the Treaty also stipulates that it is designed to enhance the ability of the United States to prosecute serious offenders like narcotics traffickers and terrorists.

Article 4(1) of the Extradition Treaty stipulates generally that extradition shall not be granted if the offense for which extradition is requested is a political offense.

News 24

August 4 2015

Harare – A lioness being raised in captivity in Zimbabwe has been killed by other lions in her enclosure, a well-known private game park announced on Tuesday.

Thembile’s attackers had lived with her “for a long period”, said Antelope Park.

The park, which is near the central city of Gweru, said that it was “with shock and deep sadness” that it announced the lioness’s death.

“We suspect that it may have been owing to a dominance/social rivalry between the lions in her enclosure. Unfortunately she was caught in the middle of the dispute which had fatal consequences,” a statement read.

“This was a shock especially since they were getting on so well,” it added.

It was not clear when the incident occurred.

An official at the park was not immediately available for comment when contacted by telephone.

Conflicting statements

News of the killing comes with Zimbabwe’s lions very much in the global spotlight after the illegal killing of Cecil the lion by US hunter Walter Palmer early last month. The authorities announced this weekend that they were investigating the earlier killing of another lion, also by a US hunter.

There is some confusion over whether that lion was killed in April or in July, with officials from the state Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority issuing conflicting statements.

Antelope Park, which operates a lion breeding and release programme, said the parks authority had been called in to assess the situation in the wake of Thembile’s death.

This appears to be the first time that the park has confirmed the death of one of its lions at the hands of other lions.

“Lions in the wild have dominance disputes and do lead to injury and death,” the park said.

Many Zimbabweans have felt alienated by the media frenzy over Cecil’s death. But @shonatiger, a popular Zimbabwean on Twitter said after news of Thembile’s death broke: “Lions are having a pretty tough time in Zim right now.”

In 2010, the daughter of the then education minister David Coltart, was mauled at Antelope Park when she scratched a lioness through a fenced cage, which then turned on her and pulled her arm through the fence. The eight-year-old child was encouraged by a guide to scratch the lioness, reports at the time said.

The Telegraph

31 Jul 2015

Zimbabwe has called for US dentist who shot Cecil the lion dead during a hunting trip to be extradited back to Africa to face poaching charges, which could carry a lengthy prison sentence.
The move came as it emerged that Dr Walter Palmer could also face a potential five year jail term in the United States and a $20,000 fine for breaching the Lacey Act, which enforces the legal protection for endangered species across the world.

Oppah Muchinguri, the Zimbabwean environment minister, said Dr Palmer was a “foreign poacher” who had financed an illegal hunt of Cecil, an “iconic attraction” in the country’s famed Hwange National Park.
She also suggested that Dr Palmer had the additional motive of wanting to tarnish Zimbabwe’s image, and said the country’s prosecutor general had initiated the extradition request.

“The illegal killing was deliberate,” she told a news conference. “We are appealing to the responsible authorities for his extradition to Zimbabwe so that he can be held accountable for his illegal actions.”
Dr Palmer, from Minnesota, is reported to have paid about $61,000 (£35,000) to hunt a lion, and shot Cecil on July 1 on private land near to the national park. He said he believed the hunt was legal.
The hunter who accompanied him told the Telegraph the pair had been “devastated” when they realised Cecil was wearing a radio collar because he was part of an academic study by Oxford University.
However, Dr Palmer reportedly told his escort afterwards to find him a large elephant to shoot.

Mrs Muchinguri, a new appointee to the environment ministry but a stalwart of the ruling Zanu PF party and close friend of President Robert Mugabe’s wife Grace, said Dr Palmer, professional hunter Theo Bronkhorst and landowner Honest Ndlovu were part of an “organised gang”.

She said that Cecil’s killing was “deliberate” because it had taken place on land where the owner had not been allocated a quota for lions, and a bow and arrow was used “to conceal the illegal hunt by using a means that would not alert the rangers on patrol”.

“As we frantically try to protect our wildlife from organised gangs such as this one, there are people who can connive to undermine Zimbabwean laws,” she said.

“One can conclude with confidence that Dr Palmer, being an American citizen, had a well-orchestrated agenda which would tarnish the image of Zimbabwe and further strain the relationship between Zimbabwe and the USA.”

She said Dr Palmer would be sought on charges of financing an illegal hunt and for violation of Section 123 of the Parks and Wildlife Act, which controls the use of bows and arrows in hunting.
According to the act, illegal hunting and poaching can carry up to 20 years imprisonment but can also be dealt with by a fine.

Legal sources close to the prosecution of the professional hunter told The Telegraph the maximum penalty they faced for conducting and allowing an illegal hunt was $400 or a one year prison sentence.
The highest penalty ever handed to illegal huntsmen in Zimbabwe was 15 years for poisoning up to 100 elephants with cyanide in Hwange.

Richard Chibuwe, the deputy chief of mission at Zimbabwe’s embassy in Washington, said extradition would be a “last resort”.
“We are trying other avenues,” he told the Associated Press.

The US Fish and Wildlife Service is investigating what happened and a department spokesman said a representative of the dentist, who has not been seen publicly for days, had made contact with its office of law enforcement on Wednesday afternoon.

While Cecil has no legal protection under US domestic law, he is covered by the Lacey Act which enforces the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES).
Not only are African lions explicitly covered by CITES but the Fish and Wildlife Service has proposed extending protection under the US Endangered Species act.
A spokesman for the service said it was deeply concerned about the killing of Cecil.

“We are currently gathering facts about the issue and will assist Zimbabwe officials in whatever manner requested,” the spokesman said. “It is up to all of us – not just the people of Africa – to ensure that healthy, wild populations of animals continue to roam the savanna for generations to come.”

Zimbabwe has an extradition treaty with the United States that has been in effect since April 2000 for cases in which a crime applicable in both countries is alleged to have been committed and which are punishable by more than a year in prison. The Humane Society, America’s largest animal protection organisation, gave strong support to the extradition move, its president Wayne Pacelle alleging that the killing of Cecil was not by chance but “a professional hit” by a hunter obsessed with big trophies who “had designs” on him as one of the largest lions around.

Extraditions from the United States are rare however, and the dubious human rights record of Zimbabwe’s regime would likely come into play.

Professor Fred Morrison, a constitutional and international law specialist at the University of Minnesota, said the process was also “cumbersome and expensive” for the extraditing state.
More likely, he suggested, was a prosecution in the US. “One possibility is the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act that prohibits US citizens from bribing foreign government officials,” he said.
“It is alleged that he paid the game refuge officials in Zimbabwe to shoot the mortally injured lion. That might or might not be deemed a bribe.”

Emmanuel Fundira, the head of Zimbabwe’s safari industry association, said the payment of a bribe was likely to have happened.
“There had to be,” Mr Fundira told American newspaper the Star Tribune. “The documents which they used for carrying out the hunt were all illegal and fraudulently obtained.”
Mr Fundira, who helped government officials investigating the incident, said that although it was “highly, highly likely” Dr Palmer would be charged by Zimbabwe authorities, he added that the dentist “probably committed the offense unknowingly.”

“I would recommend [that Palmer] get in touch to put his side of the story in before assumptions and or conclusions are arrived at,” Fundira said.

David Coltart, a senior Zimbabwean lawyer who handled some of Zimbabwe’s most controversial political trials and served as education minister in the inclusive government, says it would be “highly problematic” for the United States to allow any of its citizens to be extradited to Zimbabwe for trial.

There was no record of any citizens of either country being extradited, Mr Coltart, a member of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, added.

“We have to consider the reputation of the rule of law in Zimbabwe, and whether the courts are biased,” he said. “There would also be fear within the US that this could become an opportunity to retaliate against the United States for restrictions imposed on certain Zimbabweans.”

The US imposed travel and financial sanctions against Mr Mugabe and senior Zanu-PF leaders including the present justice minister and chief prosecutor.

VOA

July 30 2015

WASHINGTON DC—
Patricia Nabanyama, the widow of Patrick Nabanyama, who disappeared more than 15 years ago after being allegedly kidnapped by suspected war veterans, says she is worried about the disappearance of activist, Itayi Dzamara.

Dzamara has been missing for more than four months.

Nabanyama said the alleged abduction of Dzamara brought back sad memories and reminded her and her family that people’s safety is not guaranteed in Zimbabwe.

She said since the abduction of her husband, who was an election agent for former Education Minister David Coltart when the Movement for Democratic Change was still united, her family has been living in abject poverty.

Nabanyama was allegedly abducted at his home in Bulawayo’s Nketa suburb in 2000, in similar circumstances like political activist Dzamara of Occupy Africa Unity Square, who was allegedly snatched from a barber shop in Harare’s Glenview suburb.

The Star

By Peta Thornycroft

To many Zimbabweans, the answer to that question doesn’t really matter. They’re not looking for democracy, but economic relief, writes Peta Thornycroft.

Johannesburg – There are so many mysteries about Emmerson Mnangagwa. And much curiosity about him as he is the front runner to succeed Robert Mugabe – even though, of course, to survive the rocky road to the top job he must continue to deny he has any presidential ambition.

He must be part of the chorus which says that Mugabe, 91, will live forever, and that Zimbabwe’s “revolution” continues until final victory.

But the conversation that concentrates many minds in Zimbabwe more then Zanu- PF rituals is: Will Mnangagwa be better or worse than the “old man”?

Mugabe’s 35 years in power have transformed a relatively prosperous country into one that cannot borrow its way out of foreign debt or recapitalise infrastructure destroyed by neglect and policies which mean it doesn’t even have its own currency any more.

“I don’t care which party is in control. Which leader is driving. We don’t care any more about voting. The new person must come into office soon and fix the economy,” said a successful 42-year-old vegetable seedling trader who runs a slick operation outside a busy supermarket in Harare’s northern suburbs.

“I have never seen Mnangagwa, so I don’t know him: “What do you know of him? Is he okay?”

Mnangagwa remains elusive. Zimbabwe is not a country where ordinary people will express political opinions freely.

Researchers are not even sure of his age. He said in an interview in the government-controlled Harare weekly, The Sunday Mail, earlier this year that he is 71, soon to be 72. The voters roll says he is 72 and will be 73 mid-September; Wikipedia says he is 69.

His age has some relevance.

In the early part of the civil war to end minority white rule, Mnangagwa was found guilty of murder and blowing up a train and was rescued from the death sentence in 1965, because the judge believed he was a minor, when the age of majority was 21.

But he was, almost certainly, at least a year older than that.

Mnangagwa is not much remembered in the very few books Zimbabweans have written about the struggle and the war to end white rule.

We know that he did his O and A levels during nearly seven years in prison and then studied law in Zambia and completed articles in Lusaka for a revered Zimbabwe lawyer, Enoch Dumbutshena, who went on to become chief justice.

Mnangagwa was popular with some in the white intelligence community who remained in Zimbabwe at independence when he was first appointed security minister.

He went out of his way to find the policemen who tracked him down and nabbed him. He became friends with some of them and trusted them. Unusually, records of his arrest and trial are missing from the national archive.

Mnangagwa became Mugabe’s special assistant in Mozambique and, as an adult, has had no life outside Zanu-PF.

He was a natural successor to Mugabe for years. He ran the party’s now-failed business empire. So he was appalled and angry when junior party colleague Joice Mujuru was choreographed into one of the two vice-presidency positions in 2004, mainly because she was a woman.

So last year, ahead of the party congress, she was booted out, thanks to Mugabe’s wife Grace who went around the country holding rallies and told whoever would listen that Mujuru was planning a coup d’état.

It’s hard to find anyone who believes that. But it was useful to Mnangagwa and those who wanted to shaft her.

We know he helped change the Zanu-PF constitution to allow Mugabe to appoint him as vice-president last December, rather than stand for elections for the post.

We know little about his private life although we do know his second wife, Auxilia, was recently elected an MP, and that his first wife died some years ago. And we think he might have six adult children.

We know most Zimbabweans, even in his home area, did not know him well, or perhaps didn’t like him, as he was twice defeated in elections by opposition candidates in 2000 and 2005.

We know he was key to whatever it was that he and other Zanu-PF seniors and military leaders “earned” in the Democratic Republic of Congo after the late Laurent Kabila called for assistance from Mugabe’s well-trained army in 1998.

There are reports published around the world that say that he and others made a fortune out of DRC diamonds and money laundering at that time.

But we do know via public record that Mnangagwa played a key role in the DRC after the war and ensured that at least two prominent white Zimbabwean entrepreneurs briefly became rich cobalt and copper miners.

Businessmen operating in Katanga at that time have told several researchers and journalists that they saw regular payments were made from Zimbabweans operating there to a couple of top DRC leaders and senior Zanu-PF personalities during this period. Mnangagwa’s name circulates in these conversations.

If he made money then, and subsequently via his gold mining operations in Zimbabwe, he doesn’t show off his wealth.

He often drives himself around without security officials. He bought a farm after independence and took another from a white farmer post 2000 in central Zimbabwe. He owns a modest house in a not-so- fashionable Harare suburb.

“Pragmatist? Yes. He will be pragmatic,” said Eldred Masunungure, a senior political scientist from the University of Zimbabwe.

“We understand he is astute in his own business empire, and he would want his family business to expand. He would be more pragmatic then ideological.

“He does not have a flashy lifestyle. He is part of a close-knit political group averse to publicity who lead quiet lives so most people really do not know him.

“But the younger generation will find it difficult to be hopeful about him because the Zimbabwe they have known has always been in crisis. That is all they know.

“So the prevailing mood is of despair. It is palpable, one can almost touch it.”

Masunungure said Mnangagwa had “a difficult record and he needs to improve on that, so I imagine his advisers are working on his reputation”.

Masunungure reflects what many intellectuals will say about Mnangagwa – that he was a key player in the massacre of thousands of opposition supporters in the south and western parts of Zimbabwe post independence, and that he was the architect of violence against the Movement for Democratic Change since it emerged 15 years ago and very nearly defeated Zanu- PF in elections.

“We just hope the old man goes as soon as possible, because we are in such a very deep hole,” said a chartered accountant in Harare who asked not to be named.

Previous education minister and long-time human rights lawyer, David Coltart, who represented many victims of Zanu-PF violence in the 1980s, said this week: “The worst excesses of Zanu-PF have always happened when Mnangagwa has enjoyed Mugabe’s ear.”

He points to a speech Mnangagwa made in 1983 when he was security minister and which was reported in a government newspaper in second city Bulawayo during the heat of those massacres in the Matabeleland province:

“Blessed are they who will follow the path of the government laws for their days on Earth shall be increased. But woe unto those who will choose the path of collaboration with dissidents for we will certainly shorten their stay on Earth.”

But the chartered accountant and a mining executive say: “Yes, we know that. It was terrible. So we don’t expect democracy from Mnangagwa, but he will fix the economy, and that is all that counts these days. Democracy etcetera will come later.”

Mnangagwa did not respond to many calls made to his office via phone and e-mail seeking comment from him.

News24

21 July 2015

Harare – Zimbabwe’s vice president Emmerson Mnangagwa, on a visit to Belarus, has described the European country as “developed, orderly and clean” and its people as “loving”, the state broadcaster said on Monday.

Critics have called landlocked Belarus “Europe’s last dictatorship” on account of the authoritarian rule of long-time president, Alexander Lukashenko.

Mnangagwa, who is accompanied by Zimbabwe’s central bank governor John Mangudya and other officials, is in Minsk to drum up financial support for President Robert Mugabe’s cash-strapped government.

According to a report on the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) website, Mnangagwa and Belarusian premier, Andrei Kobyakov earlier on Monday signed a Memorandum of Agreement worth $ 150m. The deal is said to cover support for road and dam construction, as well as mining and agriculture.

True story

The ZBC quoted Kobyakov as saying his country was “excited to have found a reliable trade partner”.

Like Mugabe, Lukashenko and his close allies are subject to targeted sanctions by the US and the EU for alleged rights abuses.

“Vice president Mnangagwa said despite sanctions and the western media being awash with bad stories and perception about Belarus, Zimbabwe will be a good ambassador of the country and will tell the true story,” the ZBC said.

The upbeat reports of Mnangagwa’s trip to Belarus in Zimbabwean state media have, however, been greeted with scepticism by some locals.

Oppostion Movement for Democratic Change politician David Coltart described the trip as “another mirage”.

“What meaningful investment can we expect from a tin pot republic,” Coltart said in a tweet on Monday.

New Zimbabwe.com

20th July 2015

JONATHAN Moyo bristled with anger on Twitter Monday after former education minister and opposition politician David Coltart suggested that, by not resigning from Zanu PF in protest during Gukurahundi, he was complicit in the atrocities.

“You’re a plain Rhodie idiot,” charged Moyo in response.

Told by a follower that ‘idiot’ was too strong a word “especially from people calling themselves educated”, Moyo was unwavering.

He continued: “I repeat, you’re a plain Rhodie idiot. How dare you say I’m responsible for Gukurahundi you bloody Selous Scout?!”

Moyo states in his CV that his father was one of the victims when President Robert Mugabe, as prime minister in the 1980s, ordered a vicious army unit especially trained for the purpose by North Korea into the Matebeleland and Midlands regions supposedly to hunt down dissidents.

Rights groups say 20,000 civilians, mostly Ndebeles, were killed in the campaign which forced Joshua Nkomo to flee to London through Botswana saying Mugabe had dispatched soldiers to assassinate him, adding they had also killed his chauffeur and ransacked his home.

Mugabe – through the 35 years he has ruled the country – has refused to apologise for the mass killings, or even address the concerns of still-bitter survivors let alone bring to justice those responsible who include some of his top aides.

Current vice president Emmerson Mnangagwa was in charge of state security at the time while air force boss Perrence Shiri headed the notorious Fifth Brigade which Nkomo described as a political army.

A Mnangagwa ally recently told NewZimbabwe.com that they suspected Gukurahundi was at the heart of Moyo’s fallout with the vice president and apparent determination to ensure he does not take over from Mugabe.

“There is clearly a fall-out. We are not sure why, perhaps Moyo is reviving his anger at Mnangagwa over the death of his father,” said the Zanu PF official.

When Mnangagwa torched a storm in 2011 by declaring that Gukurahundi was a “closed chapter”, Moyo was one of the senior politicians who criticised the remarks, describing them as “irresponsible and unacceptable”.
He then challenged Zanu PF to “publicly engage the issue in an open, honest and non-defensive way, which has characterised our attitude thus far”.

Again, when current co-vice president Phekezela Mphoko astonished many by claiming that Gukurahundi was a Western conspiracy adding Mugabe was not responsible for the killings, Moyo accused the VP of revisionism and questioned the “intended meaning and purpose” of Mphoko’s remarks.

What remains lingering about the atrocities, Moyo added, are not the “Gukurahundi causes but the Gukurahundi consequences”.

Meanwhile, explaining his row with Moyo, Coltart said on Facebook: “I have had an interesting twitter exchange with Jonathan Moyo this morning.

“It started when someone asked whether we agreed on anything. I responded by saying that we agreed on a lot prior to him “joining Zanu PF in 1999”.

“Moyo responded by agreeing with another 3rd party tweet that he in fact joined Zanu PF in 1976 when he was its representative in California.

“I responded saying – ‘fair enough’ and then questioned whether if that was so, whether he shared responsibility for Gukurahundi and suggested that he perhaps ‘re-joined Zanu PF in 1999’.

“Moyo went ballistic, angered by what he felt was my suggestion that he was complicit in Gukurahundi.

“I pointed out that I had not made that allegation but that if he was a loyal, card carrying member of Zanu PF during that time, and did not resign or speak out, then he would be complicit. It does raise the issue of our silence in the face of evil.”

Moyo however, said “If the vile logic of (Coltart) is right, then whites like him who served BSAP are racists who are responsible for all Rhodie atrocities!”

He continued: “(The) logical conclusion of (Coltart’s) idiocy on this matter is that Joshua Nkomo endorsed Gukurahundi by signing Unity Accord with Zanu PF!

“According to (Coltart’s logic) Morgan Tsvangirai must be responsible for Gukurahundi because he was a Zanu PF member during the dark period!”

Moyo accused Coltart of “seeking to gain from the Gukurahundi tragedy at the expense of victims still with open wounds!”

He added: “Only a Rhodie idiot would say it’s not vitriolic to say I’m responsible for Gukurahundi because I was Zanu PF!”