According to Wikileaks, Hungwe and his wife Ruthmae were removed at a time when the US Embassy in Harare was recommending that the list be extended to include more Zanu (PF) officials guilty of human rights abuses or benefitting from President Robert Mugabe’s patronage system.
Ex finance minister, Christopher Kuruneri, who was on trial for holding dual citizenship (Zimbabwe and Canada) and July Moyo, who was on suspension from Zanu (PF) because of the Tsholotsho debacle, were also removed from the list at that time.
“Since the visa sanctions list is not public information we would suggest only publicly disclosing that some unspecified names were deleted and only telling the individuals privately that they have been removed,” says one of the US Embassy’s cables uploaded to the Wikileaks site.
The cable says Hungwe provided the embassy with useful information. “He is also on the outs within Zanu (PF) after the December 2004 party congress,” it says.
The cable goes on to provide the names of people who had died or spouses of those who had died for removal from the list. Among them were the late economist and former minister of finance, Dr Bernard Chidzero and his wife Micheline, former local government minister Enos Chikowore, former foreign affairs minister Witness Mangwende, former defence minister Moven Mahachi and former vice president Simon Muzenda.
Post published in: News