Believe Gaule lies about Jonathan Moyo

THE rolling out of Operation Restore Legacy by the Zimbabwe Defence Forces has ushered in a new political dispensation led by President Emmerson Mnangagwa. However, for the people of Tsholotsho North in Matabeleland North Province, the new era saw them losing their Member of Parliament, Professor Jonathan Moyo who was believed to be one of the brains behind the G40 cabal that had surrounded former President Robert Mugabe.

Prof Moyo fled from the country when the ZDF announced that it was targeting criminals that had surrounded Mugabe. His whereabouts are unknown although he is active on micro-blogging site, Twitter. Our Assistant Editor Mkhululi Sibanda last week spoke to a former ally of Prof Moyo, Believe Gaule to get an insight of what was happening on the ground especially in Tsholotsho North. However, of late the two politicians had cut off their relationship. Below are excerpts of the interview:

MS: Gaule, a lot has happened on the political front and one of the casualties of Operation Restore Legacy, a development that ushered in a new dispensation is your former MP and ally, Prof Jonathan Moyo. May you please shed light on what is happening now, especially in Tsholotsho.

Gaule: It is true that I was once close to Professor Jonathan Moyo when he started campaigning to be an MP in Tsholotsho and that was around 2000. I went through a lot with Prof Moyo, at some point we were expelled from Zanu-PF after the so-called Tsholotsho Declaration that was said to have been made under the guise of a speech and prize giving day at Dinyane High School. After that sad episode Prof Moyo stood as an independent and won. That was in 2005 and in 2008 he won again as an independent after getting support from the two MDC factions while I stood as a Senatorial candidate for MDC-M and won as well. However, during that time I can say I was in political wilderness because my heart was still with Zanu-PF. In the 2013 election I had an amicable divorce with MDC, so I did not contest but worked my way back to Zanu-PF. In 2013 Prof Moyo stood as the Zanu-PF candidate for Tsholotsho and lost to Mrs Rose Sipepa Nkomo. All those years we were working together with Prof Moyo. However, of late that had changed.

MS: What had changed?

Gaule: I was not longer on talking terms with Jonathan.

MS: Tell us more, what really happened?

Gaule: I started seeing that there was a problem after the 2015 by-election which Jonathan won. We campaigned for him vigorously. I am not talking of myself as an individual but Zanu-PF politicians from all over, even President Mnangagwa came. It was after he won that election that Prof Moyo started going astray. Most of the times he was now blaming Mnangagwa, saying he was blocking him from assuming certain party and Government positions but I couldn't believe it. I told him that Mnangagwa was not the appointing authority, I told him in his face that he was not being truthful. He became angry. That was the beginning of the straining of our relationship. I did not understand where the blame was coming from because ED could not be blamed for the appointments of Cabinet posts.

But Prof Moyo was saying ED wanted him removed from the Information Ministry to that of Higher and Tertiary Education. He started manufacturing a lot of things against ED. Every time it was Mnangagwa this, Mnangagwa that. I then realised that he was building a case so that at the end of the day he would have something to justify himself and say that ED was fighting him. The more I tried to restrain him the more our relationship became strained and he started avoiding me and others. However, at the beginning of this year things took a turn for the worst and he stopped talking to me.

He was being influenced by a number of people, among them Saviour Kasukuwere. It was the G40 cabal at work.

MS: Battle lines had been drawn I suppose.

Gaule: Yes, that's true. Prof Moyo then went on doing his own things and not telling anyone, unlike before when he was consulting me. He went a step further and started telling people that I was Lacoste. He went further again and compiled a list with our names calling for our expulsion from the party. There were other people from Tsholotsho on that list. Even from the province as well and one of them was the Speaker of Parliament Jacob Mudenda. To put his plan into motion he tried to push provincial chairman Richard Moyo to have us expelled. However, he did not succeed because Richard Moyo resisted and not only him but other leaders from Mat North too. I would like to thank Mat North province for being together in that time of need otherwise we would have been expelled.

MS: As that was panning out what was happening in the constituency?

Gaule: People were not happy because some of us had campaigned for Jonathan and we live with the people. Even the chiefs and other traditional leaders had started grumbling because all of a sudden they were seeing a new Jonathan who was surrounding himself with people from outside our area.

MS: But you had worked with him before and especially in the early 2000s.

Gaule: I remember from 2000-2004 we had worked well with him. By that time I then became the chairman of DCC then we ended up getting expelled together because of the issue of Dinyane at the end of 2004 when we were moving towards the congress. So he is someone I worked well with and we had very wonderful projects with him in Tsholotsho. Then after being fired we all returned together but people change, now he wanted me out of the party.

MS: Gaule, when you talk about Prof Moyo and yourself, there is the issue of the untold story of Dinyane.

Gaule: I was a councillor in Ward Two by that time in Tsholotsho and also finance chairperson for the RDC. Ward Two covers Tsholotsho North and goes up to Dlamini, Mabhanda, part of Gombalume, Bhemba and in the area of Chief Tategulu, it's a very big ward. The thing is that I was the chairman of the finance committee and then I was also the DCC chairman. I took over from Siyazama Ndlovu and by then I was a teacher at Titashawa, an SDA school. I then left the teaching profession for full time politics. We worked well with Jonathan and we had many projects that we did in the community and we also had Alois Ndebele the late who was the council chairperson and we worked very well with him as well. As for the Dinyane issue we were framed.

MS: What really happened?

Gaule: As the DCC chairperson I am the one who invited Mnangagwa and that invitation was extended through Jonathan Moyo. Remember President Mnangagwa was the Speaker of Parliament and the party's Secretary for Administration. It was an innocent invitation as personally I wanted Mnangagwa to get an appreciation of the development projects of our area and also adopt Dinyane so that it could offer science subjects. However, he was blocked from coming by these people who started fighting him a long time ago. At that time nominations to fill the vacancy left by VP Simon Muzenda had been opened up, so some wanted him to take over but unfortunately it was interpreted differently. We had prepared a present of leopard skin for him. At the end of the day we were censured.

MS: Now that the dust is settling what are your comments on the new political dispensation?

Gaule: I am impressed by the policies of the new administration headed by President Mnangagwa. His policies are resonating with the aspirations of the ordinary people. Some of us live with the people, they are impressed with the cutting of the budget of the party's Extra-Ordinary Congress, the trimming of the Cabinet, pronouncements that there is zero tolerance on corruption and so on. People are full of hope. I was also impressed by the National Budget presented by Minister Chinamasa on Thursday afternoon.

To me that was the best budget that I have seen for years. The budget set the tone for a new political and economic direction. However, I must also take this opportunity to warn the new political leadership, especially the President himself that he should watch out for career bootlickers. Some people have made a career out of bootlicking in a bid to gain favours from our leaders, such people are dangerous. But I must say things are promising, it looks like we are going to mend relations with the international community, put a stop to arbitrary expulsion of comrades from the party and that there would be a flow of ideas, we are headed towards exciting times both in Government and the party.

MS: If elections were to be held today, what do you think would happen? Confine your predictions to Tsholotsho.

Gaule: President Mnangagwa and Zanu-PF would make a clean sweep in Tsholotsho. People in my district are excited. That excitement is summed up by the song, Kutonga Kwaro. It has become a national anthem and Tsholotsho has not been left out. Kutonga Kwaro is being belted at all business centres. It looks like people love their President. Some are even asking ukuthi when is the President visiting Tsholotsho, they want to see him face to face. I just hope he is going to have time to reach out to those outlying areas.