Jonathan Moyo roasts Grace Mugabe

Former Higher and Tertiary Education Jonathan Moyo minister has turned against his one-time ally and former first lady, Grace Mugabe.

Yesterday, Moyo turned his guns on Grace, accusing her of lacking leadership qualities and singing for her supper by praising President Emmerson Mnangagwa.

This comes after the former first lady showered praises on Mnangagwa for chartering a private plane to fly her from Singapore where she was receiving treatment to attend her mother's funeral.

A grovelling Grace described Mnangagwa as heaven-sent and urged her former allies in the now defunct Generation 40 (G40) faction who are still sulking to accept the leadership of the man who removed former president Robert Mugabe from power through a soft coup last November.

However, this did not go down well with Moyo, a former G40 kingpin, now living in self-imposed exile since the military intervention last year.

In a statement released to a private online publication, Moyo said:

"It is an absurd corruption of public morality, values and ethos for Mrs Mugabe to claim that Mnangagwa's gesture to hire a fancy private plane to fly her from Singapore and to pay for her mother's funeral constitutes a political paradigm for the country to move on. Narcissism cannot be the basis for politics".

He said while the former first lady was well within her rights to thank Mnangagwa for assisting her family at a time of need, she had "no rhyme or reason or right to turn that into a national cause".

Moyo said Grace had no basis to claim that she was most affected by last November coup because there were certain people who suffered more than her.

Several government ministers who were loyal to Mugabe went into hiding following the military intervention, with Moyo, former Zanu-PF political commissar Saviour Kasukuwere and Mugabe's  nephew Patrick Zhuwao going into exile.

"Does she care about how these victims of the coup have fared since that fateful November day? What does she think moving on means for these people?"

"Does she think it just means hearing that she has been flown in a fancy private plane by Mnangagwa, who also ordered the government to foot the bill of her mother's funeral? Is that what it is all about?

Has Mrs Mugabe thought about how Mrs Munetsi and her family struggled to bury her husband?" he added.

Moyo also condemned the August 1 killings of unarmed civilians by soldiers saying it was a continuation of the military takeover of State power that started in November, questioning whether Mugabe had given that incident and those affected a thought.

"The demonstrators were protesting the election theft that was underway on that day, does Mrs Mugabe know the names of these victims?

Does she know how the massacred victims were buried? Did Mnangagwa provide transport to these victims? Did he pay for the funerals?" said Moyo.

Continuing his discrimination against Mnangagwa's presidency, Moyo said Mugabe can move on with Mnangagwa, but the people are not going to be part of that movement. He said Zimbabweans are moving in a different direction because their vote was stolen.

"Their compatriots were murdered in cold blood and some were maimed; and their livelihoods were destroyed, he added.

"Decent Zimbabweans want to see justice done; and they want to see the people's vote respected."

Moyo advised Mugabe to understand that there's need for mutual respect to enable mutual understanding, and the basis for that is respect for the country's new Constitution enacted in 2013.

"Mugabe is free to associate and support Mnangagwa or whomever she chooses as her constitutional right, but other Zimbabweans will also exercise the same right using the same freedom without reference to her."