Ex-MDC senior official to join Zanu-PF

Qhubani Moyo, the former  director of  policy and research in the MDC led by Welshman Ncube who resigned from the party recently saying he was very disappointed by July 31 elections results, has revealed he will join the Zanu-PF government  to change  its behaviour from inside.

The Ncube-led party failed to secure a single parliamentary seat during the elections in Matabeleland region regarded as the party's stronghold.

Moyo who has reportedly been offered  a job in the Information ministry told  journalists at Bulawayo Press Club on Friday that if he was offered a position in government he would take it with both hands.

"I will do so that I serve my country especially people of this region (Matabeleland).

"There are two options we have now as opposition parties in this country - its either we guard Zanu-PF from inside or from outside. And personally I think the best is to guard it from inside," Moyo told journalists.

He added that; "One of the problems we have as people of this region (Matabeleland) is that when opportunities come in government we don't take them and then we cry foul from outside.

"Grab that opportunity and serve your region in government. I have walked that path whereby we attack people from this region who work with the Zanu-PF calling them sell-outs but I have realised that doesn't work".

Moyo who lost the Insiza North seat to Zanu-PF's Andrew Langa in the July 31 elections said he has great respect for Information and Broadcasting Services minister Jonathan Moyo.

Qhubani who is also the founder of Bulawayo community radio station Radio Dialogue is currently a lecturer at the National University of Science and Technology (NUST).

He was the MDC faction's representative in the Joint Monitoring and Implementation Committee (Jomic) during the inclusive government and also contributed immensely in the writing of his party manifesto and other party policy documents before the July 31 elections.

His last MDC assignment was in South Africa when he represented his party during the Crisis Coalition symposium held last month where he presented a paper during a discussion entitled "50 Points on the state of the constitution-making process in Zimbabwe."

In an interview with the Mail & Guardian last week, Moyo said Zanu-PF would stay in power for some time and, in retrospect, he attributed his MDC's poor showing in the elections in Matabeleland to the fact that voters saw Tsvangirai as their only option.

'People voted with emotion and not brains'
"There seems to be an obsession, especially by the people of Matabeleland, to remove President Mugabe from power and there was an illusion, especially in Bulawayo, that Tsvangirai was the only one with the necessary muscle to do so," Moyo said.

"The electorate in what was supposed to be a Ncube stronghold did not know that in other parts of the country there was fatigue over Tsvangirai because of a number of his monumental blunders in government as the prime minister and in his private life.

"People of the region voted with emotion and not brains and, in the process, put pedestrian politicians in leadership, who cannot assist the region to go forward."

According to Moyo, the lack of appetite to deliver a grand coalition with the MDC-T was his former party's greatest undoing.

Before the elections, Ncube formed an alliance with the Zimbabwe African People's Union leader, Dumiso Dabengwa, and Tsvangirai formed an alliance with the Simba Makoni-led Mavambo/Dawn/Kusile party.

"An alliance of the two MDCs could have assisted to improve the parliamentary tally and, in particular, was going to assist the Ncube formation, but it would not have assisted in totally dislodging Zanu-PF.

"The reality is that, while on the surface there was an impression that the MDCs were colossal institutions, a close scrutiny would reveal that they were in fact institutionally weak and could not match the Zanu-PF machinery, which had the advantage of being supported by state organs."

New leadership
Moyo said the issue of the coalition "really hurt the Ncube formation" as there was no appetite in the party to discuss it and Tsvangirai used it to create a public perception that it was the Ncube side that was against uniting.

Regarding calls for new leadership, Moyo said, although Ncube was a good leader working in difficult times, there was a need to transform the party "from a institution of a few" and a need to respect its decision-making bodies.

Ncube denied rumours that he was earmarked for a government job and said he was going to focus on academic pursuits. But, if an opportunity arose in government, he would consider it.