Zuma abusing SADC role for nepotistic considerations says Moyo

Professor Jonathan Moyo has accused South Africa President, Jacob Zuma, of abusing his role as SADC facilitator to interfere in Zimbabwean politics and help boost the political fortunes of his relative Welshman Ncube.

Ncube - whose son is married to one of Zuma's daughters - has been battling to replace Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara as a GPA principal, having deposed him as leader of the MDC.

And the Industry and Commerce Minister appeared to receive a boost last week when Zuma refused to meet Mutambara during a visit to Harare ahead of the SADC summit in Maputo, Mozambique.

But the snub drew fire from Moyo who accused Zuma of a nepotistic scheme to install Ncube as a GPA principal and described the move as "illegal, unconstitutional, intrusive and impolitic".

Writing in his opinion piece "Zuma's mediation being compromised by nepotistic considerations", Moyo charged: "In a dramatic public display of intolerable inconsistency apparently driven by an equally intolerable big brother 'knows it and does it all' mentality, upon arrival in Harare Presi­dent Zuma … decided to unilaterally recompose the forum of GPA principals by removing Deputy Prime Minister Mutambara and replacing him with Welshman Ncube, who is his relative through the marriage of their children, thereby open­ing himself to growing allegations of nepotism that are now beginning to stick given the unsatisfactory manner in which President Zuma has used his dual role as facilitator and outgoing chairman of the Organ Troika to mislead the Sadc summit into imposing Welshman Ncube as a GPA principal."