EXILED former cabinet ministers Professor Jonathan Moyo and Patrick Zhuwao have issued a public apology for their role in the ‘Zanu-PF Must Go’ (#ZanuPFMustGo) hashtag campaign which followed 2017’s violent ouster of then President Robert Mugabe and his government through a military coup.
Moyo and his colleagues in Zanu-PF’s so-called G40 group barely escaped with their lives as their Harare homes were attacked by the military on that fateful November 15 night. They have been living in exiled since.
In an open letter to “Zanu-PF members” published in full below, Prof Moyo and Zhuwao said “it is our considered judgment that we owe you a long overdue apology for having used the hashtag and for having associated ourselves with it, in the first place.
“Accordingly, and on this day of 15 November 2022,we hereby apologise to all of you Comrades most sincerely and with profound regret for our wrong use of – and ill-advised association with – the hashtag ‘Zanu-PF Must Go’ (#ZanuPFMustGo).”
They added; “… we supported Nelson Chamisa in the 2018 and well after that but we did not at any time in that process ever seek to join his then MDC-A or his new CCC.
“We hoped in vain that Chamisa would break barriers and forge a new platform on which a cross section of citizens straddling the political divide could converge, based on Zimbabwe’s founding values and principles stipulated in section 3 ofZimbabwe’s Constitution.”
Other key points from the letter;
“As we tender our apology to you Comrades, we do so fully aware that there is no alternative political formation in Zimbabwe that: (a) recognises, values and appreciates the liberation struggle that gave way to the country’s independence, and that (b) is also guided and informed by the genuine patriotic and nationalistic values and principles that shepherded Zimbabwe’s liberation struggle.”
“… it is clear for anyone to see that those pushing the #ZanuPFMustGo mantra have no ideological content beyond the hashtag. nI our view, the quest to keep or seek power for its on sake is inimical to both the public and national interests.”
