HIGHER education minister and Zanu PF politburo member, Jonathan Moyo, has vowed that the Zanu PF government will never enact any electoral reforms because doing so would be tantamount to handing over power to the opposition.
Addressing journalists at the Bulawayo Press Club last Friday, Moyo rubbished calls for electoral reforms by opposition parties, saying reforms were concluded during the erstwhile government of national unity.
“They have been quiet for three years and suddenly they now want electoral reforms and give themselves a funny name, a parastatal name like NERA. Let us be clear, for a long time since 1999, the opposition was saying the most important reform that must happen in the country is a new constitution. The current Electoral Act as it is now is a product of the Global Political Agreement parties,” said Moyo.
He added: “Opposition parties are literally saying put in place electoral reforms that will ensure that you lose and we win. That will never happen anywhere in a modern constitutional democracy that a political party that has come into government on the back of negotiated electoral reforms to then come up with reforms intended to reform itself out of power.”
Moyo also denied the existence of a faction called Generation 40 within the ruling party, insisting the phrase was a creation of the media.
G40 is widely believed to be a group of young Zanu PF politicians working to stop vice president Emerson Mnangagwa from succeeding President Robert Mugabe. The group, which is said to be fronted by First Lady Grace Mugabe, is said to include Moyo, Saviour Kasukuwere and Mugabe’s nephew, Patrick Zhuwao.
“They say there is G40 and you say who is in G40? They say Kasukuwere, Jonathan Moyo and Patrick Zhuwao. A faction with three people!…. I think our country deserves better than that,” said Moyo.