SK Moyo for VP: Zapu

Simon Khaya Moyo
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THE opposition Zapu has thrown its weight behind Zanu PF spokesperson Simon Khaya Moyo to land the post of Vice-President in line with provisions of the 1987 Unity Accord.

BY NQOBANI NDLOVU

Zanu PF’s two VP posts are vacant after Phelekezela Mphoko was expelled from the party. The other post was occupied by Emmerson Mnangagwa, now President, after the military pressured longtime ruler Robert Mugabe to resign last month.

Contacted for comment, Khaya Moyo said: “It’s a prerogative of the President. Honestly, there is nothing I can say about that.”

Zapu Harare provincial secretary-general Elphacy Dube said the province was throwing its weight behind Khaya Moyo.

One of the VP posts has always been occupied by a former PF Zapu member who would have been national chairperson of Zanu PF at the time of appointment. The tradition was only broken with the appointment of Mphoko in December 2014 after the post of national chairperson was abolished.

At the time, Khaya Moyo was Zanu PF national chairman.

“Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo was appointed VP by virtue of him being the president of PF Zapu and Joseph Msika became the national chairman by virtue of him being the vice to Nkomo at party level.

“When Nkomo died in July 1999, Msika took over as the VP and John Nkomo became the national chairman. This was a clear structure that Zapu PF followed so much that when Msika died in August 2009, John Nkomo, who was the national chairman, took over as VP and in came Khaya Moyo to fill the vacant post of national chairman,” Dube said in an interview with Southern Eye.

He added: “When John Nkomo died in January 2013 leaving Comrade Khaya Moyo representing the party in the presidium as national chairman alone, there was a lot of clamouring for positions from both parties — PF Zapu and Zanu PF — just before the 2014 congress. We expected him to move on to become the VP as the set norm.

“All along PF Zapu had known structures that were followed, that of forwarding names to fill the two positions in the presidium until the bundling-in of Phelekezela Mpoko as VP, ditching the tried and tested arrangement that existed before within Zapu PF.” – NewsDay