Moyo is thick-headed - Mugabe
24/02/2005 13:30  - (SA)  

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Harare - Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has branded his former protege Jonathan Moyo, who appeared untouchable during his tenure as information minister, as "thick-headed" for defying the ruling party ahead of key polls next month.

Mugabe said on state television late on Wednesday that he had tried to persuade the out-of-favour Moyo to change his mind about running as an independent candidate in next month's crucial parliamentary elections, without any success.

He said Moyo "was adamant, he is thick-headed, we are very sorry but the party has rules and rules must be followed. He remains ousted from the party," said Mugabe.

Mugabe said people would do well to remember that "if you defy, remember the party is bigger than you, you will be pushed aside like a person of no importance."

Moyo, 48, got the sack on Saturday after he decided to run in the March 31 parliamentary vote as an independent candidate, defying the ruling Zimbabwe African National Union - Patriotic Front (Zanu-PF) party which had barred him from standing in the ballot.

His dismissal at the weekend capped a nearly six-year meteoric rise for Moyo, who went from being one of Mugabe's harshest critics to his loudest cheerleader.

Critics labelled him "Mugabe's Goebbels", referring to the Nazi propagandist.

Moyo made his mark as the architect of the draconian Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act passed into law in 2002, barring foreign journalists from working in Zimbabwe for long periods and tightening controls on domestic media.

Two independent newspapers have been shut down and several journalists arrested under the law crafted ahead of a parliamentary election in 2000 which the opposition and many foreign observers charge was marred by fraud.

His argument for the tough media law was that it was necessary to protect Zimbabwe from foreign journalists whom he viewed as pawns of Western countries like Britain and the United States which have harshly criticised the Mugabe regime.

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