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Prof Moyo

There is a saying that, “if you cannot stand the heat in the kitchen, go out” or something to that effect.

We were reminded of this when President Mugabe on Friday made an important injunction that those who were unhappy within the ruling Zanu-PF were free to leave the revolutionary party.

He added that he and the party had been “quite patient” with “negative characters”. We have seen that these negative characters, growing bolder by the day, have been disruptive and vexatious and now pose a serious threat to the stability of Zanu-PF and the country.

The currency of discourse in the country informs us that President Mugabe was referring to Higher Education Minister Professor Jonathan Moyo.

Prof Moyo is a bundle of negative energy. Notoriously, of late, he has gone into overdrive denigrating the Government Command Agriculture. This he is doing apparently in an attempt to spite Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa who, along with the First lady Dr Grace Mugabe, has been championing the programme.

Not that, as far as we have recorded, Comrade Mnangagwa has sought personal glory in it: we would be happy to be furnished with that piece of news.

From what we have seen, VP Mnangagwa has taken part in the programme as a member of Government and President Mugabe’s lieutenant, as chair of a task force spearheading the programme. If anybody should have been bitter, it should have been the opposition which normally thrives on protests vote from a hungry populace.

Ironically, Prof Moyo and his cohorts like Patrick Zhuwao have chosen to see something else. Perhaps it is the nature of politics and we have little interest in the games that the men play.

What matters to us, which is in the national interest, is the success of Government programmes which benefit the people and in the case of Command Agriculture, stave off hunger and cut down on imports.

President Mugabe on Friday described Command Agriculture as a beautiful programme — a direct antithesis to the term “Ugly-Culture” which Prof Moyo deviously coined. Further, the Head of State and Government said there was nothing amiss in VP Mnangagwa spearheading the programme.

It is strange that on Sunday, Prof Moyo gave an interview to a local weekly and further denigrated the programme and VP Mnangagwa while pretending to agree with the President.

Something is clearly wrong here. One would think that Prof Moyo is either a brave man or a mad man. Or he is both and we are yet to see that there is a method to his madness.

He simply cannot defy President Mugabe — who issued a warning on Friday hinting at thinning patience — and his Number Two. A good guess is that he is trying to precipitate a crisis, a big one, which will stand to benefit him politically.

You cannot fail to see this curious and dangerous trajectory. Prof Moyo’s defiance at a time when President Mugabe warned that actions like his were denuding the party’s patience smacks of a sinister brand of Hegelianism.

His actions are cold and calculated. That is why we see him embarking on some brinkmanship which he is best qualified to know how it will end. Someone once remarked that men do not risk all for nothing.

The nation follows closely, with keen interest.