Jonathan Moyo castigates Chamisa

EXILED former cabinet minister Jonathan Moyo, wrote to MDC Alliance secretary general Charlton Hwende and his leader Nelson Chamisa strongly chastising them over the party's failure to respond to a story by NewZimbabwe.com exposing how they were wrangling over his role in assisting the opposition party during the 2023 general election.

The article expose how senior MDC Alliance members were sharply divided over Moyo's offer to train 44 000 of their polling agents amid fears by some of the top brass that not the best foot forward as he count not be trusted.

The article also revealed that Chamisa's co-deputies, Tendai Biti and Welshman Ncube, as well as firebrand deputy national chairperson Job Sikhala were highly antagonistic to the idea of working with Moyo.

Sources in the party said Chamisa was more of a fence sitter and wanted to make his assessment basing on contributions by his senior lieutenants.

"Having made the offers in good faith, I am saddened that a public impression has been created that some senior MDC Alliance leaders do not want the offers and even more saddened by the claim that the offers have divided the MDC Alliance leadership," Moyo wrote on October 11, 2021.

"Upon reflection, and taking into account sentiments that have been expressed by some MDC Alliance members on various social media platforms in support of the sentiments carried in NewZimbabwe.com's article, I accept that the issue of supporting and training polling agents is both critical and sensitive and I therefore understand and respect the opposition to my offers," he wrote.

"In the circumstances and taking into account some concerns and advice I have received from some members of the public, I regret that I must step down from both offers that I made through your office and hereby advise that I am withdrawing them, against my better judgement. I do so with a heavy heart but with no hard feelings whatsoever."

Moyo had taken an active role in pushing better prospects for the opposition which lost narrowly to Zanu-PF candidate, President Emmerson Mnangagwa in 2018.

His letter to Chamisa expressed similar sentiments on the Citizens Convergence for Change (CCC) policy which as had been known was his creation.

"President in 2018 I took a stand, a very clear stand, and I openly and actively campaigned for you and campaigned against Mnangagwa and Zanu-PF. But the negative reaction to that approach by and from the MDC Alliance, in general, coupled with its negative reaction, in particular, to my offer to train MDC Alliance polling agents, and the unwillingness or inability of the MDC Alliance to openly clarify its position as a party, have made me realise that it's time to move on," he says in the letter.

"This has become necessary given that when secretary general Charlton Hwende asked me to draft a position paper on common values to define and ground the Citizens Convergence for Change initiative, whose draft you got me to revise and improve, the paper I did was put aside and without any further reference to me. Something else, very different, was published."

The MDC Alliance neither responded to his offers nor acknowledged where it had derived the now popular CCC initiative.