Jonathan Moyo threatens to publish Cabinet minutes

SELfEXILED former minister Jonathan Moyo has threatened to publish Cabinet minutes to prove that G40 elements were not taking instructions from the late for mer president Robert Mugabe's wife, Grace.

In an interview through the Zoom plat form with Heart & Soul Television on Friday, Moyo said claims by former finance minister and acting Zanu-PF spokesperson Patrick Chinamasa that G40aligned ministers during Mugabe's rule sought the advice from Grace to reverse Cabinet decisions were not true.

He said Cabinet, on two occasions, rejected the introduction of bond notes after Chinamasa's presentations, but the former finance minister secretly went through President Emmerson Mnangagwa and John Mangudya, the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe governor, to convince Mugabe.

"People said we supported the introduction of bond notes. When it was introduced by Chinamasa, it was rejected twice. He sneaked the issue again and this time he came with the governor, but Cabinet said no. Mnangagwa then connived with Chinamasa and decided to tell Mugabe that there was a critical issue which could not be discussed in Cabinet because of state secrecy," Moyo said.

"They then got the president to agree, but no discussions in Cabinet were done and Cabinet had no consensus because decisions were made outside. Chinamasa, Mangudya and Mnangagwa are the ones who reversed Cabinet decisions to introduce bond notes."

He said Cabinet meeting minutes were there to prove what he was saying. Moyo, who fled into self-imposed exile after the November 2017 coup, also sensationally claimed that in 2002, Cabinet approved the stripping of assets of public entities by privatising them for personal benefit.

The former Tsholotsho North legislator said he was surprised after Cabinet was presented with a list of public companies that were to be privatised.

"In my first Cabinet meeting in 2002, after the government lost the (2000 constitutional) referendum, we were presented with Cabinet minutes of the last meeting to confirm and I was surprised when we were given a list of companies that were to be privatised. There were two companies that were among the list which were not supposed to be there, Zimpapers and Kingstons," Moyo claimed.

"I have been able to gather that the list ing of all those companies for privatisation was meant to loot the public entities' assets. In the case of Zimpapers and Kingstons, there were directors, managers and some trustees of the Zimbabwe Mass Media Trust (ZMMT) who were interested in the asset stripping.

"After observing that they wanted to strip the public company of its assets, I dissolved the ZMMT board to stop the as set stripping and stop the privatisation of Zimpapers. I basically found the formula for stopping the grabbing of public assets."

Moyo said he was surprised that Cabinet wanted to strip Zimpapers assets when the company was not a state entity as it was under a trust after the Nigerian government gave ZMMT a US$5 million grant in the early 1980s.

He said Mnangagwa was lying to the world that citizens were now enjoying their rights.

"Mnangagwa has taken away the rights of citizens, but he is lying to the world that citizens are enjoying their rights. He has taken away the right of people to appoint judges. He is now solely responsible for taking away that right from people. People should participate in the appointment of judges," Moyo said.