The cable, which originated from the US embassy in Harare in 2001, and was destined for Washington, quoted the late Masipula Sithole, a political science professor at the University of Zimbabwe saying Mnangagwa’s treachery dated back to the days of the liberation war in Mozambique.
“As (Robert) Mugabe’s chief of security during the war, Mnangagwa provided information to him on the activities of his rivals in the liberation movement,” the cable, dated 12 March 2001 reads.
The cable continues: “Mnangagwa’s reports led Mugabe to imprison a number of movement politicians, including Kumbirai Kangai and Rugare Gumbo.”
The diplomatic communication, released by WikiLeaks two weeks ago, said that after independence in 1980, Mnangagwa, as Mugabe’s new minister for national security and overseer of the CIO, put spies on virtually every prominent figure in ZANU PF.
This, the cable stated, strengthened Mugabe’s hold on the ZANU PF party immeasurably. But Mnangagwa’s well known ruthlessness has had an enormous adverse affect on his standing in the party.
The 65 year-old Mnangagwa, also known as ‘Ngwena’ (Shona for ‘crocodile’) is not well liked in party circles because of his chequered history.
The sly politician has long been touted by the media and his political allies as the frontrunner to replace Mugabe as first secretary of ZANU PF. But his star has dimmed since 2004 when he was accused of plotting against his boss. He has also lost two parliamentary elections in KweKwe to MDC’s Blessing Chebundo.
Since 2004, he was widely considered a ZANU PF outcast, and was only plucked from this obscurity in 2008 when he rescued Mugabe after the ZANU PF leader was defeated in a presidential election by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai.
The now Defence Minister mobilised the Joint Operations Command (JOC), a cabal of hardline security chiefs loyal to Mugabe, to unleash a terror campaign against MDC supporters.
This allowed Mugabe to return to power after a sham run-off boycotted by Tsvangirai and even condemned by the 87-year-old’s regional and continental allies.
Post published in: News