Nomazulu Thata| It is indeed challenging to critique this young man by all accounts. When the article read; “Jonathan Moyo the competent face of an incompetent corruptocracy.” It was the best description we could get. By no account is he a political clean man, far from it. They don’t call him a political turn-coat for nothing. You cannot sup with criminals without being an accomplice. He is really guilty by association.
That said. We wonder at the abilities and capabilities of Jonathan Moyo, and already questions will persist in our minds. How does he dwell in political deceit for so long? Zanu PF was not and is not a party of level thinking people. The rudeness, corruption, barbarism and cruelty of the highest order since 1980, the country has history of genocide in its history books. He decides not to want to see any evil at all, but be part of the gravy train. His father is a victim of genocide in Matebeleland and Midlands. For a simple mind like mine I cannot comprehend this for once! I should be forgiven for being just a middle finger of average mental capacity, a lesser mortal I suppose!
Let me hasten to say that when Jonathan Moyo lost the parliamentary elections in 2013 to MDC-T’s Mrs. Roslyn Nkomo he did not take his political loss kindly. When there were calls from his former constituency asking for assistance from him, the northern regions were facing chronic famine at that time, he turned against them and reminded them of who they voted for. “that is where you will get your assistance” he said. I wish he could have acted differently. To assist your constituency because it voted for him cannot be mature politics at all. If he assisted he would have shown irrevocable love for his people in Tsholotsho North. I take great exception to that political discrepancy of his at that time.
Jonathan Moyo, after the elections, had a powerful position, he was Minister of Information, for some reasons that we scantly know why, he lost the post of Information Minister and was given a ministry for Higher and Tertiary Education.
Here Moyo has shown and still shines as minister in this ministry. A lot has been done with his STEM programs. We painfully looked at the competency of this young man called Moyo, we are unable to critique what we see, a thorn in our flesh, his Zanu PF connections. He is full of surprises, his STEM program is well received by many even us his foes, we commended his work.
Alone the money he is said to have corruptly accessed in the national coffers; the money did not go into his pocket but used it to boost his STEM programs and some of it he bought bicycles and tricycles for headmen in his constituencies. He never appropriated the government cash into his personal pocket. The issue of his corruption was more on the inner fighting than that he was guilty of personalizing funds from the government coffers. A Catholic saint called St. Augustine stole money from the rich people to give to the poor people, just to give some reference to Moyo’s corruption accusations.
Not to subtract his already good work or downplay his success, I still find it difficult to comprehend some aspects of his gender insensitivity. If there were further programs to enhance STEM, girls and young women became second in his selection. I remember not long ago when he paraded only young men who had done well in STEM; there was not even a single woman in the panel of male achievers. Then came the opportunity of selected young STEM program overseas, were to be sent to USA for further enhancement of STEM subjects, only one young lady among nine young men were selected.
Moyo is a father to five girls. I wish there was some kind of gender sensitivity in his selection. Personally, I did not take this insensitivity kindly at all. To boost young men while reducing the young women’s performance does not serve equal opportunities for boys and girls at all. Equal opportunities for boys and girls are enshrined in the UN- MDGs and SDGs. His sidelining of girls perpetuates the notion that girls are second to boys or girls perform less than boys.
Nobody doubts the competence of this young man called JN Moyo. He is professionally and intellectually a competent man. but what does he want in a party of Robert Gabriel Mugabe’s Zanu PF? I would have said he was going to be a big asset in the coming dispensation, is he going to re-invent himself after the obvious downfall of Zanu PF and government? Who is going to buy his “weevil” status in the party Zanu PF? Are we going to go with his explanation that he was destroying the Zanu PF machinery from within and we accept it as true?
As someone coming from Matebeleland North, seeing the assistance that JN gave to the people of this region gave me some pride I confess, somehow but painfully. He can move a lot in terms of development in the region. He has transformed lives for the betterment of the villagers. We cannot take that away from him. We need to ask how many Zanu PF politicians in the region of Matebeleland have developed their constituencies in the way JN has done to Tsholotsho North. What has VP Mphoko done for this region? What has Thokozani Khuphe done to Makhokhoba when she was MP and Vice Prime Minister in the GNU? What did Welshman Ncube do for the people of Matebeleland and Bulawayo where he was once an MP for Nkulumane? What we know is that VP Mphoko gave three women three sewing machines to boost industrialisation in Bulawayo and flocks of chickens time and again.
Savaged by floods the assistance JN Moyo gave the people of his constituency is indeed tangible and noble assistance, it saved lives, people were grateful even coming from those helicopters, they showed all signs of gratefulness. It is a big noble gesture from a politician coming from Zanu PF. We commend this loudly dear JN; you did a great job indeed, a job it shall be remembered for years to come. We say Moyo, Dewa, Vumabalanda, Zimbaibwe for putting lives first before politics.
However, the cabal you dwell in will tarnish all the good work you have done regionally and nationally. You developed Tsholotsho during your time as independent MP we know that too and we were grateful for this. You do continue to development the area in education, schools continue to be built. I will be surprised if the money comes from the “corrupt funds from the government” As you can see we are at pains in critiquing your politics with Zanu PF; it is for this reason we say you are just a pain in the everything!
I ask you to do one thing, think like a father blessed with daughters in your yard. To be Seka Dade should reflect this in your ministry, please do more for our girls equally. Bring our girls to the forefront of STEM programs. Educating a girl is educating the family, community and the nation as a whole, you know this very well as it is buzz-word in all national and international conventions regarding women and girl-children.