An abridged version of the article reads: Eddie Cross, an MDC MP who has proved to be well informed on security matters in the past, told the newspaper that he had been informed by security sources that the company, Nikuv International Projects, is working on the roll at Defence House in Harare, the headquarters of the Zimbabwe Defence Force. The MDC also alleged that Nikuv was a front for the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad, although it offered no evidence to support the claim.
It is unclear what Nikuv’s involvement in this coming election is, but the firm specialises in population registration and election systems. Cross said the source told him the company was working under the direction of Daniel Tonde Nhepera, the deputy head of the Central Intelligence Organisation.
Another Zimbabwean intelligence source confirmed the allegation that Nikuv was working on the voters’ roll “with the CIO”.
In the run-up to the disputed 2008 elections, then opposition parties accused the company of assisting the Zanu (PF) government to manipulate the roll in favour of President Robert Mugabe. The Israeli embassy in Pretoria took the unusual step of issuing a statement at the time, denying that Mossad was involved in any way in the elections.
But now an amaBhungane investigation has found that top executives of a Nikuv associate company have an Israeli intelligence background and Nikuv has been linked to other cases of collaboration with the Zimbabwean security services.
In Zambia, where Nikuv was brought in to manage and computerise voter registration, the United National Independence Party (Unip) accused the ruling Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD) of trying to rig the 1996 election with the company’s help. The Zambian High Court found that the registration process was flawed but that there was no evidence that a majority was built in for the ruling MMD. Nevertheless, the Nikuv roll was later scrapped.
AmaBhungane managed to contact the man who appears to be running the company’s project in Zimbabwe, Ron Asher, who has been in the country since 2011. But he refused to disclose anything about the company’s activities, declining even to give the physical address of its Harare office. He referred all queries to the Nikuv head office in Israel, which confirmed receiving detailed questions from amaBhungane on March 7, including a question about whether it is working on the Zimbabwean voters’ roll under the direction of the CIO. It had not replied at the time of going to press a month later.
Post published in: News