The elitist subaltern? Jonathan Moyo's tweets as a Machiavellian barometer of post-Mugabe Zimbabwean politics.

Discussing and contesting politics on Twitter has taken centre stage in Zimbabwe. In this discursive cyber-scape, political celebrities have emerged. Professor Jonathan Moyo is one of the popular voices (re)configuring the ideological and conceptual (dis)continuities of Zimbabwe's post-coup d'état political culture. Moyo was ejected from his position as a ZANU PF political insider after the military-led ousting of long-time ruler Robert Gabriel Mugabe in November 2017. His knowledge of the ruling party invokes a political forecast, retro-cast, and insight that is puzzling and transforming political discourse. This article argues that Moyo's tweets use carefully selected ideas and concepts to expose, undermine, and predict ZANU PF political manoeuvres in the post-Mugabe era. It analyses the celebrity politician's tweets after the November 2017 coup d'état, showing how they capture and influence the political mood in the post-Mugabe nation-state. The article confirms that Twitter has taken a central role as a platform for democratic engagement while also being exploited by disgraced politicians. It provides an open and free digital medium for citizens to interact and share their concerns as well as disagreements over state politics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]