Investigate Jameson Timba for calling Mugabe a liar: Prof Moyo

ZANU-PF Politburo Member Cde Jonathan Moyo has called on the Attorney-General's Office to investigate Minister of State in the Prime Minister's Office, Jameson Timba for branding President Mugabe a liar.

Mr Timba is quoted in the South African Sunday Times newspaper's Zimbabwe edition saying President Mugabe lied about the outcome of the Sadc Sandton summit last week.

"The Minister of State in Tsvangirai's office, who attended the closed session of the Sandton summit on Zimbabwe, said (President) Mugabe's version of events was untrue.

"Although the Sunday Times already had most of the details, Timba confirmed the information which exposed (President) Mugabe and his ministers as 'liars'," The Sunday Times reported.

Prof Moyo said Minister Timba's utterances were meant to tarnish President Mugabe.

"The Attorney-General should look at this because it seems there was an intention to tarnish the President's name for something he did not do.

"It is impossible to believe that Minister Timba was sober when he uttered such an outrageous statement attributed to him by the Sunday Times because this is the kind of stuff that can only come from somebody whose mind has been consumed by something very strong.

"When President Mugabe came back from South Africa he never involved himself in the debate of "noted", yet Timba tries to attribute those words to President Mugabe in this nonsense.

"If this is not addressed it will set a wrong precedent, where we can have Cabinet ministers not respecting the President. It is unacceptable for a Cabinet minister to call his boss a liar, whether from Zanu-PF, MDC or from the moon," Prof Moyo said.

He said Mr Timba should be disciplined according to the Cabinet rules saying such utterances bring disrepute to the whole government system.

Prof Moyo also called on the Zimbabwe Media Commission to take appropriate measures and confirm if the writer of the story is registered with them.

"What Timba said is worse than hate speech. This must never be condoned. He should be disciplined accordingly because failure to do so will bring the entire Government system into disrepute.

"We realise that the story was written by one Zoli Mangena, the ZMC should also tell us who this guy is. It can only take a fictitious reporter to be associated with such a story and claim a by-line on it when in actually fact he knows that President Mugabe never said that," Prof Moyo said.

He added that there was an intention to tarnish the President's image considering that there were more banners titled "Mugabe a liar" than all the Sunday Times copies distributed in the country.

"Harare was full of banners with 'Mugabe a liar' more than the available copies of the Sunday Times. This was a criminal intent and if the ZMC fails to get to the bottom of this matter then the police should investigate," he said.

The Sunday Times quoted Mr Timba saying President Mugabe and his ministers are liars for giving their view of what transpired at the Sandton Summit.

Commenting on the Sandton summit outcome, President Mugabe described it as very good and did not talk about the arguments over whether the summit had noted or endorsed the Livingstone resolutions. It was Foreign Affairs Minister Simbarashe Mumbengegwi who said the Sandton summit had noted and not endorsed Livingstone.