Zimbabwe’s former Information Minister, Jonathan Moyo, and Patrick Zhuwao, the nephew of the late President Robert Mugabe, have apologized to the ruling party for backing the opposition and undermining the integrity of Zanu PF.
In an open letter dated November 15, 2022, and signed by Moyo and Zhuwao, the two said they should have never denounced the ruling party.
“Between 2018 and 2020 - on the back of the 15 November 2017 military coup that ousted President Mugabe and his government from power and violently targeted us and other comrades linked with the so-called G40 - we associated ourselves and used the hashtag 'Zanu PF Must Go' (#ZanuPFMustGo), in our public messaging and communication.
“Whereas we stopped using the hashtag and disassociated ourselves from it quite some time back, it is our considered judgment that we owe you a long overdue apology for having used the hashtag and for having associated ourselves with it, in the first place.”
As a result, Moyo and Zhuwao said, “Accordingly, and on this day of 15 November 2022, we hereby apologise to all of you Comrades most sincerely and with profound regret for our wrong use of - and ill-advised association with - the hashtag 'Zanu PF Must Go' (#ZanuPFMustGo).
“While it is common cause that the protracted public differences we had with other leaders in the party and the government became irreconcilable to the point where military force was used to target us with our families, and to overthrow the late former President Robert Mugabe and his government; and whereas that use of miliary force was unconstitutional and set a dangerous governance precedence in the country and elsewhere across the Continent, we have come to the full realisation and conclusion that those unfortunate developments and their tormenting consequences on us did not - and do not - justify our use of and association with the hashtag 'Zanu PF Must Go' (#ZanuPFMustGo); which clearly targeted not those who had tormented us but also all of you, as members of Zanu PF.”
Moyo and Zhuwao said for whatever it is worth, they supported Nelson Chamisa in the 2018 general election and well after that, but “we did not at any time in that process ever seek to join his then MDC-A or his new CCC. As President Mugabe best put it ahead of the 2018 harmonised general election, "there was no one else to support", given the political dynamics that were at play at the time.
“We hoped in vain that Chamisa would break barriers and forge a new platform on which a cross section of citizens straddling the political divide could converge, based on Zimbabwe's founding values and principles stipulated in section 3 of Zimbabwe's Constitution.”
Zanu PF says the two are welcome back to the big tent. There are fears in the ruling party about their return with some of them claiming that Moyo may spearhead a split in the former liberation movement.