'Zimbabwe opposition has given up on 2018 elections'

Zanu-PF politburo member, Jonathan Moyo has picked a fresh verbal fight with opposition leaders, after he claimed that they have given up on the 2018 elections, accusing them of lacking nationalistic grounding.

Addressing a Southern African Political and Economic Series discussion in Harare last week, Moyo said: "The opposition's biggest problem is that they are not rooted, framed or cast in the nationalist project. They are not from that tradition. They do a lot to distance themselves from the nationalist project and it is a fatal weakness and come up with launches of a new Zimbabwe.

"We are all watching, but they are likely to spend all the time until the nomination court (fighting for leadership). Prominent leaders of the opposition like Tendai Biti (People's Democratic Party leader) have indicated a narrative that the game is over and let's see what happens in 2023."

Attempts to come up with a united front to face Mugabe in next year's polls have been beset by problems with opposition leaders heckling over who would be the face of the coalition that Zimbabweans are clamouring for.

But PDP spokesperson, Jacob Mafume said Zanu-PF's crude election practices have robbed Zimbabweans of a chance to change their government.

"We have lost elections because of the violence, arrests, rigging and the tight media control that Zanu-PF has on the nation," he said.

"Where we won in 2008, Zanu-PF simply refused to leave power using its monopoly over violence as controlled by the security sector. Moyo's definition of nationalist is a shifting target like offals in a dish."

MDC-T spokesperson, Obert Gutu said: "Jonathan Moyo should be the last person to accuse anyone of lacking nationalist grounding. It is on public record that Moyo deserted the armed struggle in Tanzania and went to study in the United States. Moyo is a political turn-coat, a classic example of a political sell-out."

Joice Mujuru's National People's Party (NPP) spokesperson, Gift Nyandoro said the opposition was aware of Zanu-PF's plot to sow divisions within their ranks.

"Moyo's remarks demonstrate that he is a victim of the make-believe world deliberately resisting to accept the reality that Zanu-PF's misrule, dictatorship, corruption and violence are now the rallying point for peace-loving Zimbabweans to ensure Mugabe's ultimate defeat in 2018 by a grand coalition of opposition forces. We are ready for
Zanu-PF's despotic machinations," he said.

In the past, opposition figures have admitted that the lack of liberation war credentials within their ranks could have been one of the reasons for continued election failures.

Mujuru's entry into opposition politics has been welcomed as a defining factor ahead of the elections next year, although Zanu-PF-aligned war veterans have vowed not to recognise an election winner without liberation war credentials.