Two weeks ago, under the headline “Mujuru under house arrest”, we reported that Mugabe had instructed the CIO to place Mujuru and other supporters of Simba Makoni under strict surveillance.
An angry Mujuru denied that he had ever been placed under house arrest and threatened to sue The Zimbabwean. We took him at his word and apologized at the weekend in our sister paper, The Zimbabwean on Sunday. We reiterate that apology here, as it has been established that indeed Mujuru is not and has not been under house arrest.
However what has come to light in the course of our investigations to establish the truth of the matter, is that the general is under 24-hour surveillance by Mugabe’s police, intelligence services and the army. So is Simba Makoni, John Nkomo, Dumiso Dabengwa, Joice Mujuru and Sydney Sekeramai. Their phones are tapped and they are followed everywhere. This has been corroborated by several independent sources within the three services.
Since publishing the apology on Sunday, The Zimbabwean has been inundated with phone calls and email messages from serving members in the forces who insist that our story was correct.
“I am a senior member of the army, and have actually been hoping to get hold of your reporters to give them more information. Mujuru is not only under house arrest but he survived an assassination attempt in January by CIOs sent by Bob. Perhaps you do not understand these things. What is happening with Mujuru is all his movements are followed by CIO and army personnel assigned to him and they guard him at home 24 hours. That does not mean he is not able to move around but everything he does is tracked.
“We used to rely on your newspaper for breaking such things but it seems you are giving in to fear. I know Mujuru has threatened you for you to say the story was not true. You have disappointed me and many other people who were hoping that your paper will expose more other things,” said one email.
Another said: “Mujuru was put under house arrest last year by Robert because he organised the coup. I am one of the army members that have been send to monitor and track him. We supported Mujuru’s coup project but the guy is a coward he chickened out and allowed for the slaughter of Gunda and many other junior soldiers. He has done the same with Makoni after promising him that he was going to come out in the open and support him but he has told Robert that he has nothing to do with Makoni.”
Post published in: News