'Mliswa is out of order,' says Jonathan Moyo

HURUNGWE West MP and businessman, Themba Mliswa has hit back at the Herald, Professor Jonathan Moyo and Emmerson Mnangagwa but Prof Moyo says Mliswa is out of order.

The Herald reported that Conrad Billy Rautenbach made sensational claims the former fitness trainer tried to extort money from him.

Mliswa claims The Herald's detailed reports on the saga were a reflection of factional fights in Zanu-PF, and that reporters had been paid to scandalise him.

He then accused Information, Media and Broadcasting Services Minister Professor Jonathan Moyo of abusing the public media to settle political scores.

"There are factions in the party. I am sure the Minister of Information belongs to another faction so he will also attack another faction. I say this boldly without fear," Mliswa said.

He associated Prof Moyo with party big wig Emmerson Mnangagwa.

"It is not a secret that Minister Moyo was once associated in the Mnangagwa faction," he said.

Prof Moyo yesterday denied being in any faction saying since Mliswa had admitted involvement in factions he was not fit to continue holding the office of Mash West provincial chairman.

"This comrade is out of order. His incoherent ranting is equivalent to that of philandering husband who when his wife notices just before they go to bed that he is wearing a woman's underwear, he adorned by mistake after having a quickie with his small house on his way home, wonders aloud exclaiming: "who put this underwear on me?"

The comrade has clearly been caught with his hands in the till and he thinks he can cover up his corruption by seeking refuge in what he declares to be his faction against what he imagines to be a rival faction. And the comrade's self-indulgent claim that only the public media is uncovering corruption or that there's a factional agenda to the coverage can only be believed by the walking dead among us. The entire media is doing a good job for which it should be commended by all well meaning Zimbabweans.

"But if the comrade is still capable of sobering up I am sure he will see how wayward he has gone and he will hopefully come to his sense and get down from the money helicopter and stand firm on his feet because he is a chairman of one of our ten provinces and he needs to live up to his responsibilities within the party without throwing mud all over the place in defense of racketeering and corruption in pursuit of some $165 million. Just because he has come out and declared that he belongs to a faction in Zanu-PF does not mean we are all like him and we belong to factions. He is definitely in a class of his own as exemplified by his confirmation that he had helicopter rides for which he expected to be paid millions of US dollars. Who else out there and what faction can boast of that corrupt feat?

"Otherwise everybody knows that he has been posing as a champion against corruption Parliament making all sorts of scurrilous allegations of corruption against some government ministers but nobody has accused him of speaking from the podium of a faction. So when does he see factions and conspiracies? Only when he is in the dock?  But now he has let the cat out of the bag about his factionalism and he now must be told that, having openly declared that he belongs to a faction, he does not qualify to retain his position as chairman of Mashonaland West Province because factionalism is against Zanu PF's constitution, ideology and policies," Minister Moyo said.