A couple of weeks ago President Robert Mugabe was in livid mode as he addressed a group of mourners. He was apparently seeing red as he decried the infiltration of the party by undesirable elements from the Diaspora.
The tone of his rants had the intensity of the 1982 outbursts on the discovery of weapons of war on properties belonging to PF Zapu.
In his widely publicised rant, Mugabe blamed Jonathan Moyo for being cosy with people who used to work for the vaunted opposition and for advancing the succession agenda in favour of one faction.
Mugabe politicised the term “weevils” in reference to the destructive elements that had allegedly infiltrated the Zanu PF-controlled media.
Didymus Mutasa weighed in with his own anger and raved up the ante by suggesting that the only reasonable force available to the agrarian party was to fumigate the affliction with a fumigant locally known as “gamatox”.
In pacifist fashion, Moyo requested and was granted an emergency meeting with Mugabe. Moyo met up with Mugabe who enjoyed the supportive presence of the head of the CIO and Mutasa. The country was gripped with anticipation at the prospects of the weevil coming face to face with the master-farmer, the purveyor of gamatox and a good dose of that pesticide.
The question that begged for an answer was, “Will the master farmer purchase the gamatox from the gamatox seller and apply it to the weevil in generous proportions?” Suggesting that Moyo was going to be forced to sip from the poisoned chalice would be malicious and mischievous.
Maybe the meeting had been convened only as an opportunity for all the concerned parties to find common ground and determine the best way forward.
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A select few would be privy to what was discussed in the meeting. As outsiders, we can only assume that candour was supreme during the meeting and that the parties involved chose reconciliation over retribution and recrimination.
The fact that Moyo came out of the meeting smiling; or so we thought, indicated progress. There was no reason to suspect that a dark cloud still hung above him to threaten his credibility and his see-saw political career.
No sooner had the country started making fun of the “gamatox” affair in the understanding that it had been resolved than the law and order officers struck. One of Moyo’s disputed appointees, the editor of the Sunday Mail was arrested on suspicions of being the elusive yet politically offensive Facebook blogger with the innocuous name Baba Jukwa.
The news that Moyo’s youthful protégé at Zimpapers was in effect the acerbic Baba Jukwa shocked people.
The arrest evoked mixed signals within journalism while imposing despondence on politicians who could have played some part in Baba Jukwa’s unchecked rise to the top.
The two Zimbabwean journalists based in South Africa who were previously exposed as the masterminds of the Baba Jukwa character were absolved. The magnitude of their relief was at having to watch over their shoulders for murderous secret service agents tracking them.
Free spirited journalists would be preoccupied by the fear that they are not squeaky clean where it concerns the expression of their public opinions on Mugabe’s dictatorship.
Politically, Moyo could as well be planning his next move after his personal project has been adjudged as being extremely poisonous to the wellbeing of Zanu PF.
There is no doubt that Moyo had a hand in the appointment of Edmund Kudzayi. The question is whether this was in good faith or was in furtherance of some political ambitions.
It is also not clear if Moyo sought clearance from the secret service on the character of the prospective appointee before formalising the appointment. Did Moyo know that Kudzayi had been preaching the political gospel against Zanu PF?
Was Moyo aware that Kudzayi had a working relationship with Baba Jukwa and hence appointed him with the full knowledge of his true colours? If Moyo knew that Kudzayi was moonlighting as Baba Jukwa, why did he not tip him on the possibilities of an arrest soon after the issue was first debated during a stormy politburo meeting?
As the situation currently pertains, Moyo is feeling the heat as he treads dangerously on thin political ice. This icy situation has left him with very limited choices; he cannot run and he cannot remain transfixed on the icy spot either.
His only option is to call a friend with a helicopter to winch him to some place that is welcoming, understanding and forgiving.
Assuming that the exposure and ultimate arrest of Kudzayi for being Baba Jukwa are genuine, the question to ask is, “What is going to happen next?” It is likely that some heads will roll and others will get bigger from Mugabe’s rewards. There will be victims and villains as well as hitmen and heroes in this saga.
Mugabe will exercise the punisher-remunerator duality. The beneficiaries will include those who used to be vilified by Baba Jukwa.
Those political men who went to bed with Baba Jukwa have to brace themselves for Mugabe’s maleficence which he usually reserves for homosexuals.
Masola waDabudabu is a social commentator
