MDC-T calls for Jonathan Moyo's arrest

As the ugly Zanu-PF dust-up over the corruption probe against Higher Education minister Jonathan Moyo (pictured) and his deputy Godfrey Gandawa hots up, the MDC has joined the brawl calling for the arrest of the Tsholotsho North MP.

This comes as the two Zanu-PF factions, which are going at each other hammer and tongs as they desperately bid to determine who will succeed President Robert Mugabe - Team Lacoste which is rooting for Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa and the Generation 40 group which is rabidly opposed to the Midlands godfather - have escalated their brutal succession war.

The MDC said yesterday that it wanted the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (Zacc) to ignore the allegations that it was being used by Team Lacoste to fight Moyo, an alleged G40 kingpin - urging the statutory graft body to investigate all corruption claims in the country without fear or favour.

"We call upon both Zacc and the ZRP to immediately arrest Moyo, Gandawa and all other public officials who have been implicated on very reasonable and tangible grounds, in the criminal offence of stealing and defrauding the State of its money and other public resources.

"All these people should have their day in court. At the very least, this is the very essence of the rule of law. It is apparent that the thieving of public resources has always been the Zanu-PF way of running matters of State," its spokesperson Obert Gutu said.

Moyo, who was on Wednesday last week said to have been saved from arrest by Mugabe - having at one point sought refuge at Vice President Phelekezela Mphoko's house - has accused Zacc of pursuing a Zanu-PF factional and tribal agenda.

With analysts and opposition parties pointing out yesterday that the graft probe on Moyo had highlighted the "abuse" of State resources by Zanu-PF, Moyo himself has in the meantime continued to train his guns at Mnangagwa and his ruling party supporters in a series of messages posted on microblogging site Twitter.

"So traditional leaders in Matabeleland are just ordinary people & empowering them & the region is fraud, corruption & abuse of office! ... While it's ok for some to use Zinara funds to build tarred roads to their village farms, it's fraud for others to get bicycles for chiefs!

"So Matabeleland places like these in Tsholotsho remain as they were in Lobengula's times because developing them is fraud & corrupt? ... You can say what you want but I would rather be a Robin Hood than a cruel tribalist, murderer & UN-identified cross border diamond thief!," he tweeted at the weekend.

Moyo and G40 accuse Mnangagwa and Team Lacoste of using Zacc to target them in the blitz against corruption, although the anti-graft body has been removed from the Home Affairs ministry to fall directly under Mugabe's office.

The attempt by Zacc last week to arrest Moyo follows claims that he, Gandawa and Zimbabwe Manpower Development Fund (Zimdef) chief executive Frederick Mandizvidza have engaged in multiple fraudulent activities involving hundreds of thousands of dollars which the anti graft body has been investigating since July this year.