Ramaphosa says Mnangagwa party spokesperson should drop his ’bombshell’ over ANC trip

President Cyril Ramaphosa has invited Zimbabwe’s Zanu-PF director of information Tafadzwa Mugwadi to reveal his threatened “bombshell” regarding a recent visit by an ANC delegation to Zimbabwe.

Mugwadi has been embroiled in a prolonged war of words with SABC foreign editor Sophie Mokoena whom he has gone to label a marriage wrecker who “beds ruling party officials in ANC and Zanu PF.”

Mugwadi recently wrote on Twitter: “If the ANC and SABC News do not restrain and reign [rein in] Sophie Mokoena whose fake news reporting and tweeting is directed at undermining a neighbouring country and President E.D Mnangagwa for no apparent reason, I will seek permission to leak a bombshell on why the ANC delegation came”.

Responding to the threat, Ramaphosa said Mugwadi could reveal his “bombshell”.

“In relation to Zimbabwe, I don’t know what the representative of Zanu-PF was talking about. I’m sure he will be willing to share all that with the ANC and with all of us. We sent a delegation, as the African National Congress, to Zimbabwe because Zanu-PF is a sister party to us.

“We have deep and strong links with Zanu-PF and it [the trip] was to express concern and also to find out what’s happening and to see the extent to which we can either be supportive and to fully understand what is happening. So as far as we are concerned there is nothing amiss and there is nothing we could say we have to hide.

“At government level, I appointed three envoys who went to Zimbabwe and we continue to interact with Zimbabwe, and I am also in contact with President Mnangagwa on an ongoing basis,” Ramaphosa said.

On Sunday, Mokoena tackled Mugwadi, accusing him of floor-crossing and singing for his supper, joining Zanu PF after he was previously an active member of the opposition MDC youth.

In some of his tweets, Mugwadi has called Mokoena “an embattled marriage wrecker in newsrooms” and in another tweet Mugwadi said Mokoena was “a concubine” of a senior ANC leader. He also accused Mokoena of dating one of Zimbabwe’s former cabinet ministers who had fled to South Africa.

President Mnangagwa’s ruling party through its official spokesperson Simon Khaya Moyo distanced itself from Mugwadi’s utterances and said they don’t represent the party’s position on the matter:

Zanu-PF spokesperson Simon Khaya Moyo says utterances by information director Tafadzwa Mugwadi on the ANC’s visit to Zimbabwe last year do not reflect Zanu PF’s position. Moyo says Zanu PF and ANC enjoy cordial relations and Mugwadi will be subjected to disciplinary proceedings