Jonathan Moyo
Encyclopedia
Jonathan Nathaniel Moyo (born 12 January 1957) is a controversial political figure in Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe is a landlocked country located in the southern part of the African continent, between the Zambezi and Limpopo rivers. It is bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the southwest, Zambia and a tip of Namibia to the northwest and Mozambique to the east. Zimbabwe has three...

. He was Minister of Information from 2000 to 2005 and is currently a Member of Parliament. He is considered the core architect of AIPPA and POSA
Public Order and Security Act (Zimbabwe)
The Public Order and Security Act is a piece of legislation introduced in Zimbabwe in 2002 by a ZANU-PF dominated parliament. The act was amended in 2007. The chief architects of the act when it was formulated were Jonathan Moyo and Patrick Chinamasa. Many regard POSA as an act that helped Robert...

.

Background and early years

His father was an active ZAPU cadre and a community leader. Jonathan was raised by his mother, who was separated from his father early on. His mother was very close in the early sixties and mid-seventies to the family of the late Ndabaningi Sithole
Ndabaningi Sithole
Ndabaningi Sithole founded the Zimbabwe African National Union, a militant organization that opposed the government of Rhodesia, in July 1963. A member of the Ndau ethnic group, he also worked as a Methodist minister. He spent 10 years in prison after the government banned ZANU...

 who was at the time the President of ZANU. Through these links that he ended up in Zambia
Zambia
Zambia , officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. The neighbouring countries are the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the north, Tanzania to the north-east, Malawi to the east, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Botswana and Namibia to the south, and Angola to the west....

 and later Tanzania
Tanzania
The United Republic of Tanzania is a country in East Africa bordered by Kenya and Uganda to the north, Rwanda, Burundi, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the west, and Zambia, Malawi, and Mozambique to the south. The country's eastern borders lie on the Indian Ocean.Tanzania is a state...

 between 1973 (age 16) and 1977 (age 20).

United States

His two scholarships from the United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...

 and the Africa American Institute to the University of Southern California in June 1978 were through the ZANU office in New York then headed by Kangai Tirivafi. From November 1977 to December 1981, he was ZANU's Secretary for Commissariat for the Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...

 Branch in California.

He graduated from the University of Southern California in June 1982 with a Bachelor's (Bsc) degree in public policy, obtaining a Masters in Public Administration (MPA) with same university in 1984 and a PhD in Public Policy at the same institution in 1988.

He was a lecturer at the University of Zimbabwe, before moving to Kenya
Kenya
Kenya , officially known as the Republic of Kenya, is a country in East Africa that lies on the equator, with the Indian Ocean to its south-east...

.
Although he refers to himself as Professor nowhere in his academic profession does it show him as having earned a Professorship.

Kenya

In 1993 he was program director for the Ford Foundation
Ford Foundation
The Ford Foundation is a private foundation incorporated in Michigan and based in New York City created to fund programs that were chartered in 1936 by Edsel Ford and Henry Ford....

 in Nairobi
Nairobi
Nairobi is the capital and largest city of Kenya. The city and its surrounding area also forms the Nairobi County. The name "Nairobi" comes from the Maasai phrase Enkare Nyirobi, which translates to "the place of cool waters". However, it is popularly known as the "Green City in the Sun" and is...

. He departed under a cloud after allegations that he had embezzled USD $88,000 from the organisation.

South Africa

In January 1998 he moved to South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...

, to the University of Witwatersrand (WITS) to work on a project entitled The Future of the African Elite sponsored by the W. K. Kellogg Foundation
W. K. Kellogg Foundation
The W.K. Kellogg Foundation was founded in June 1930 as the W.K. Kellogg Child Welfare Foundation by breakfast cereal pioneer Will Keith Kellogg. In 1934, Kellogg donated more than $66 million in Kellogg Company stock and other investments to the W.K. Kellogg Trust...

. WITS later claimed that he had absconded with part of a R100 million research grant for the project. In October 2006 Moeletsi Mbeki
Moeletsi Mbeki
Moeletsi Mbeki is a political economist and the deputy chairman of the South African Institute of International Affairs, an independent think tank based at the University of the Witwatersrand. He is the younger brother of former President Thabo Mbeki and son of ANC leader Govan Mbeki...

, younger brother of former South African President Thabo Mbeki
Thabo Mbeki
Thabo Mvuyelwa Mbeki is a South African politician who served two terms as the second post-apartheid President of South Africa from 14 June 1999 to 24 September 2008. He is also the brother of Moeletsi Mbeki...

, and Witwatersrand University separately applied for an order to have Jonathan Moyo jailed the next time he visits South Africa.

Zimbabwe

Moyo came to the fore of the Zimbabwean political map during the drafting of the Draft Constitution. He was the spokesperson for the committee charged with putting the final draft constitution together before it was tabled for referendum in February, 2000. Once the people of Zimbabwe had rejected the draft, Mugabe appointed the political science lecturer to his cabinet following the 2000 parliamentary election, making him the spokesperson of the government and Minister of Information in the President's office.

As ZANU-PF spokesman, he described the 2000 election, in which the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) won a large minority of seats, as a "wake up call" and a "reality check for us".

Minister of Information

During his tenure, he crafted and defended, helped by Patrick Chinamasa
Patrick Chinamasa
Patrick Antony Chinamasa is a Zimbabwean politician, currently serving as the Minister of Justice.-Career:A leading member of the ruling ZANU-PF party, Chinamasa became first deputy Agriculture Minister, and then Attorney General of Zimbabwe; he also holds the role of Leader of the Zimbabwean...

, the Broadcasting Services Act (BSA) (2001), the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (Commercialisation) Act (2003), the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA) (2002), the Public Order and Security Act (2002), and the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (Commercialisation) Act (2003). This led to widespread criticism that he was attacking freedom of speech.

When Moyo brought the AIPPA to parliament, the chairman of the Parliamentary Legal Committee, Dr Eddison Zvobgo, said, "I can say without equivocation that this Bill, in its original form, was the most calculated and determined assault on our liberties guaranteed by the Constitution, in the 20 years I served as Cabinet minister."

Since being expelled from government, he has taken to deny and outrightly reject the common fact that he was the architect of these laws.

As Minister of Information, Moyo fought personal and government battles with the media from July 2000 until 2005, when he was expelled from ZANU-PF.

He beamed with pleasure and satisfaction when Chief Justice Gubbay resigned after being threatened by Joseph Chinotimba
Joseph Chinotimba
Joseph Chinotimba is a Zimbabwean political figure. He rose to prominence during the invasions of white owned commercial farms that started after the 2000 referendum in Zimbabwe. He is widely regarded as a militant ZANU-PF cadre with unquestionable allegiance to the old guard of the ruling party...

 and company. When the Daily News
Daily News (Harare)
The Daily News was a Zimbabwean independent newspaper published in Harare. Its presses were bombed and it was banned in 2003.-History:The Daily News was first launched on July 31, 1999, and controversially banned in defiance of a court ruling in 2003. Its founder, Geoffrey Nyarota, was a journalist...

was shut down, he said "The Daily News is a victim of the rule of law which it had been preaching since 1999." Daily News

In the mere space of seven years, Moyo went from being a fervent critic of the government of Robert Mugabe
Robert Mugabe
Robert Gabriel Mugabe is the President of Zimbabwe. As one of the leaders of the liberation movement against white-minority rule, he was elected into power in 1980...

 to being its fiercest defender and then again to being one of its foremost critics, a fact that renders him a mystery to many Zimbabweans. Analysts and observers and ordinary people have labeled him an opportunist because of this puzzling behavior, including George Charamba
George Charamba
George Charamba is the press secretary in the president's office and permanent secretary in the Ministry of Information in Zimbabwe. His position makes him the official spokesperson for President Robert Mugabe.- Background :...

, his former friend and allay. He has said: "I have always been a critic of government policy. I was in government for more than five years. Before that I was a critic."

He is among host of individuals not allowed to travel to the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 because the US government feels he has worked to undermine democracy in Zimbabwe.

Tsholotsho

Much philanthropy, including scholarship programs and support for sport over many years, has earned Moyo a place in Tsholotsho
Tsholotsho
- Introduction :Tsholotsho is a business center in Matabeleland North, Zimbabwe and is located about 65km north-west of Nyamandhlovu,and 98km north-west of Bulawayo as the bird flies, in the Tjolotjo communal land...

, his family area. This philanthropy increased during the days leading up to the March 2005 parliamentary election
Zimbabwe parliamentary elections, 2005
A parliamentary election was held in Zimbabwe on March 31, 2005 to elect members to the Zimbabwe House of Assembly. All of the 120 elected seats in the 150-seat House of Assembly were up for election. A parliamentary election was held in Zimbabwe on March 31, 2005 to elect members to the Zimbabwe...

, a fact that critics feel made his win for the parliamentary seat in the area inevitable.

In the leadup to the 2004 party meeting, he held an unofficial meeting in Tsholotsho, of Zanu-PF political heavyweights including six provincial party chairmen, Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa
Patrick Chinamasa
Patrick Antony Chinamasa is a Zimbabwean politician, currently serving as the Minister of Justice.-Career:A leading member of the ruling ZANU-PF party, Chinamasa became first deputy Agriculture Minister, and then Attorney General of Zimbabwe; he also holds the role of Leader of the Zimbabwean...

, and a militant war veterans' leader, Joseph Chinotimba
Joseph Chinotimba
Joseph Chinotimba is a Zimbabwean political figure. He rose to prominence during the invasions of white owned commercial farms that started after the 2000 referendum in Zimbabwe. He is widely regarded as a militant ZANU-PF cadre with unquestionable allegiance to the old guard of the ruling party...

. It was aimed at contesting one of the two vice-presidential seats after the recent death of Simon Muzenda
Simon Muzenda
Simon Vengai Muzenda was a Shona from the Karanga group, a Zimbabwean politician who served as a Deputy Prime Minister and vice president under President Robert Mugabe, a Shona Zezeru....

 on September 20, 2003, seen as a stepping stone to the presidency in light of Mugabe's presumed retirement in 2008.

He was heavily censured at the later Zanu-PF meeting, with other attendees. Joyce Mujuru
Joyce Mujuru
Joice Mujuru is a Zimbabwean politician serving as Vice President of Zimbabwe. She has held this post since December 2004, and is also Vice President of ZANU-PF...

 won the vice-presidency at the party meeting.

The subsequent decision to set aside the Tsholotsho seat in the 2005 parliamentary election for female candidates was widely interpreted as punishing those who organised the unauthorised meeting, and in particular Moyo.

In February 2005 Moyo registered to run as an independent for the seat. Doing so earned the wrath of Mugabe, who expelled him from the party and the cabinet. He won the seat in the elections, held on March 31.

Moyo was re-elected to the House of Assembly from Tsholotsho North constituency in the March 2008 parliamentary election
Zimbabwean parliamentary election, 2008
A parliamentary election was held in Zimbabwe on March 29, 2008 to elect members to both the House of Assembly and the Senate of the Zimbabwean parliament...

. He received 3,532 votes, defeating MDC candidate Mgezelwa Ncube, who received 3,305 votes, as well as Zanu-PF candidate Alice Dube, who received 2,085 votes.Themainstream MDC did not field a candidate in this constituency on the understanding that Moyo's victory would be good in the fight to remove Mugabe from power. No sooner had Moyo won did he start taking potshots at the MDC and openly defending and supporting Mugabe in newspaper articles. Some say he was angling for a cabinet position, something that did not happen.
He was the first independent candidate in Zimbabwe to ever win re-election.

Appointments

  • Lecturer Department of Political and Administrative Studies, University of Zimbabwe
    University of Zimbabwe
    The University of Zimbabwe in Harare, is the oldest and largest university in Zimbabwe. It was founded through a special relationship with the University of London and it opened its doors to its first students in 1952. The university has ten faculties offering a wide variety of degree programmes...

     (1988–1993)
  • Programme Officer Ford Foundation
    Ford Foundation
    The Ford Foundation is a private foundation incorporated in Michigan and based in New York City created to fund programs that were chartered in 1936 by Edsel Ford and Henry Ford....

     (1993–1997)
  • Visiting Professor University of Witwatersrand (January 1998–July 2000)
  • Spokesman Constitutional Commission, Government of Zimbabwe (1999–2000)
  • General Election Campaign Manager Zimbabwe African National Union Patriotic Front (2000)
  • Minister of Information Government of Zimbabwe (July 2000–February 2005)
  • Member Central Committee, Zimbabwe African National Union Patriotic Front (July 2000–December 2004)
  • Currently independent MP for Tsholotsho after trouncing the ruling ZANU(PF) and the opposition MDC in the March parliamentary elections.

Criticism

Moyo was criticized and ridiculed for his activities during the time he was Minister of Information and Publicity.

In 2005 Asher Tarivona Mutsengi, then a student leader at Solusi University
Solusi University
Solusi University is a coeducational private university in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe. Initially established in 1894, one hundred years later, the institution received the authorization of the Government of the Republic of Zimbabwe through an act of Parliament to operate as a university.As a university it...

, criticized Moyo saying "..he will go down in the annals of history as a minister who lacked foresight and for pouring vitriol against his perceived opponents, his shopping spree in South Africa of scarce food stuffs, causing unemployment to a multitude of journalists and a penchant for uncivilized propaganda."

...
"my final analysis is that he is heading for the precipice and his political prospects even if he wins the Tsholotsho
Tsholotsho
- Introduction :Tsholotsho is a business center in Matabeleland North, Zimbabwe and is located about 65km north-west of Nyamandhlovu,and 98km north-west of Bulawayo as the bird flies, in the Tjolotjo communal land...

 seat that he is vying for as an independent are drab. He might be a spin-doctor and intelligent as some claim, but I don't subscribe to that myself."

Innocent Madawo, a Zimbabwean journalist and columnist for the Toronto Sun
Toronto Sun
The Toronto Sun is an English-language daily tabloid newspaper published in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is known for its daily Sunshine Girl feature and for what it sees as a populist conservative editorial stance.-History:...

 newspaper said in an interview about Moyo,
"If it were not for Jonathan Moyo I would not be here and I am sure I am not the only one who feels like this. Even those who may have been showered with favours by the good professor, I know for certain that they too were burdened by his attentions and demands and right now, a lot are embarrassed that they ever knew him."

Columnist

In recent times since parting ways with Mugabe, Jonathan Moyo has written for some online news publications critical of Mugabe
Mugabe
Mugabe can refer to:*Robert Mugabe, President of Zimbabwe.*Sally Mugabe, first wife of Robert Mugabe.*Grace Mugabe, second wife of Robert Mugabe.*Omugabe , a title given to kings of Ankole of Uganda.*Mugabe Were, a Kenyan politician....

's government. Ironically, most of the editors of these publications are victims of media laws supported or sponsored by Moyo during his days as information minister. He seems to have been embraced and given a platform to express his anger at the government of Mugabe.

He has been readmitted in Zanu PF.

Wikileaks

In May 2011, Moyo sued the Daily News for $60,000 for reprinting former articles about his expulsion from Zanu-PF in 2005. He rejoined later. In September he sued the paper again, this time for a 6 September report which cited a 2007 US diplomatic cable in which Moyo voiced support for sanctions against President Robert Mugabe. In a follow-up article the next day it reported that Moyo had suggested which senior members of the party should be targeted by sanctions.

General

"Perennial wisdom from divine revelation and human experience dictates that all earthly things great or small, beautiful or ugly, good or bad, sad or happy, foolish or wise must finally come to an end. It is from this sobering reality that the end of executive rule has finally come for Robert Mugabe who has had his better days after a quarter of a century in power."

War with the Media

"The Daily News is a victim of the rule of law which it had been preaching since 1999." He said, celebrating and beaming at the demise of the popular Daily News
Daily News (Harare)
The Daily News was a Zimbabwean independent newspaper published in Harare. Its presses were bombed and it was banned in 2003.-History:The Daily News was first launched on July 31, 1999, and controversially banned in defiance of a court ruling in 2003. Its founder, Geoffrey Nyarota, was a journalist...

.

War at Home

"If good governance means that black people should forever live as servants and poor and as inferior citizens to white people, we don't accept it" Defending the land reform program.

"Good Riddance" he said after Chief Justice Anthony Gubbay
Anthony Gubbay
Anthony Ray Gubbay is the former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Zimbabwe. He served in the position from 1990 to 2001, when he was forced to take early retirement and replaced by Godfrey Chidyausiku....

, 68, signed an agreement to go on leave immediately and to retire formally on July 1, 2001 following threats from war veterans led by Joseph Chinotimba
Joseph Chinotimba
Joseph Chinotimba is a Zimbabwean political figure. He rose to prominence during the invasions of white owned commercial farms that started after the 2000 referendum in Zimbabwe. He is widely regarded as a militant ZANU-PF cadre with unquestionable allegiance to the old guard of the ruling party...

-Moyo was celebrating the demise of Zimbabwe's judiciary.

"We have to secure the gains of the Third Chimurenga in legal terms and Government is considering a number of options. The so-called successful white farmers were made by successive colonial governments. But given the level of the support they enjoyed and the vast tracts of land they commanded, an inescapable conclusion is that they were an inefficient lot. Much of commercial farmland was under-utilised. Moving forward means crafting legislation that consolidates and puts a final seal of legality to the gains we have made through the fast-track programme. We are aware that white commercial farmers who used to be on the land have refused to surrender title deeds to Government."

War with Foreigners

"Our problem with Britain
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 and Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

 is over the land we took over from their white kith and kin to redistribute to the indigenous black people of this country. ...
" Explaining why relations with Britain had become strained.

"We were under pressure from foreigners who claimed that they were Zimbabweans, when they were actually enemies," Defending the government's decision not to award broadcasting licenses to foreign companies.

"I have always had a nagging feeling that for all their propensity for liberal values and civilised norms, these people (South Africans) are dirty. "In fact they are filthy and recklessly uncouth. Now the evidence is there for any decent person to see" Justifying his shopping spree in South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...

, when people in Zimbabwe were starving.

"He needs to be told that Zimbabwe will never be a colony again, never" Telling Tony Blair
Tony Blair
Anthony Charles Lynton Blair is a former British Labour Party politician who served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2 May 1997 to 27 June 2007. He was the Member of Parliament for Sedgefield from 1983 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007...

 not to interfere in Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe is a landlocked country located in the southern part of the African continent, between the Zambezi and Limpopo rivers. It is bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the southwest, Zambia and a tip of Namibia to the northwest and Mozambique to the east. Zimbabwe has three...

 during the days leading up to the 2002 presidential elections.

External links

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