Zanu PF spokesperson Cde Simon Khaya Moyo (76) has died. Mr  Moyo, who had been unwell for some time, was in September replaced with Dr Mike Bimha as acting Secretary for Information and Publicity.

He was 76.

Moyo died this afternoon at Mater Dei Hospital in Bulawayo.

Zanu-PF Secretary for Administration Dr Obert Mpofu confirmed the death. He said Cde Khaya Moyo died this afternoon at Mater Dei Hospital in Bulawayo where he was admitted.

“Yes, I can confirm that he has passed on. I have just received the information. He died about 30 minutes ago. Get in touch with Dr (David) Parirenyatwa he also got that message while I was talking to him. He is in Bulawayo, he could be the appropriate person to talk to,” said Cde Mpofu.

He joined the nationalist movement in 1968 as a member of the Zimbabwe African People’s Union (ZAPU).

Moyo  left the country in 1968 heading to Zambia. Whilst in Zambia, senior officials of ZAPU agreed to send Khaya-Moyo to school. He was enrolled at the University of Zambia and in 1969 he graduated with a diploma in Social Sciences.

He received military training in Russia and Cuba and he attended the Malt, Geneva and Lancaster Conference which resulted in the Lancaster House Agreement together with Joshua Nkomo.

After 1980, he became an assistant secretary in the Ministry of Home Affairs and in 1983, he was appointed to be an undersecretary in the Ministry of Justice. In 1989, he was elected to be a member of the ZANU PF’s Central Committee.

I could have died

In 2017 Moyo said that he was lucky to be alive after being bedridden for nearly a year suffering from hypertension-related illnesses.

Khaya Moyo, who at the time described eyeing former President Robert Mugabe’s position as treasonous, praised God for the gift of life, saying without prayers he could have died. The Zanu PF spokesperson remained on full pay despite being absent from work for nearly the whole of 2017.

“First of all, I would like to thank the Lord for the gift of life. As you all know, I was bedridden for a while in 2016. I would like to thank all those that prayed for me when I was bedridden,” he told Zanu PF delegates attending a commissariat workshop on voter registration held in Bulawayo at the weekend.

Khaya Moyo is also the Policy Co-ordination and Promotion of Socio-Economic Ventures minister in the President’s Office.
“I am here because of your prayers. I could have died, but God realised my time had not come and here I am celebrating the gift of life,” he said at the time.