A war of words has erupted between Higher Education Minister Jonathan Moyo and permanent secretary in the Ministry of Information and presidential spokesman, George Charamba.
The two openly traded barbs Thursday with Charamba firing the first salvo while speaking on ZiFM radio, saying, without mentioning Moyo by name, that “one tragedy of those little fellas, and I call them little fellas, they confuse media skills with social skills.”
He further attacked the so-called little fellas stressing that one of them thinks that he or she can scale up the political ladder by tweeting or manipulating news headlines for what he said were stupid ambitions.
Moyo hit back on twitter saying, “George Charamba must not abuse his civil servant role as infor perm sec to serve secessionists. That will be resisted as it was in 2014!”
Attempts to get a comment from the two were futile. Speaking exclusively to Studio 7, Zanu PF spokesman Simon Khaya Moyo said the war of words is a personal war not representative of the party.
Moyo said he would rather comment on the party’s economic blue print, ZIMASSET, than the escalating war in the ruling party as the battle to succeed President Robert Mugabe intensifies.
Zimbabwe Independent editor Dumisani Muleya said the alleged clash between Moyo and Charamba shows a deepening crisis in the ruling party.
Mr. Mugabe turns 93 next month and though the party endorsed him as its presidential candidate for 2018, factionalism which insiders say is linked to his age has reached boiling point.
There are allegedly two factions in Zanu-PF one led by Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa and the other called Generation 40 backing first lady Grace Mugabe.