Posts by Charles Rukuni

Edgar Tekere was the second most powerful person in the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front at independence. But he lost favour because of his outspokenness against corruption and the party’s drive for a one-party state. He challenged President Robert Mugabe in the 1990 elections but this political career began to fade after that. Though he formed the Zimbabwe Unity Movement, most people felt that he remained ZANU-PF at heart. He just did not agree with the way the party was being run. There are four cables that mention his name. Here they are.

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President Robert Mugabe has been described as a spiritual descendant of former Ugandan dictator Idi Amin whose reign of terror is reported to have entrenched the cult of African strongmen “who plunder their countries’ natural wealth for their personal gratification, all the while repressing their own people with sadistic, almost bestial glee….”.

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The Daily News on Sunday said though South African President Thabo Mbeki had brokered the exit of Liberian leader Charles Taylor he should be aware that quiet diplomacy did not work with President Robert Mugabe.

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The Daily News urged African leaders to put pressure on President Robert Mugabe to step down in 2003 after Liberian leader Charles Taylor had been forced to step down.

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The Daily News said way back in 2003 that President Robert Mugabe should negotiate not only with the Movement for Democratic Change but even with the devil himself if that was the only way to break the country’s political impasse and allow Zimbabwe a chance to make a fresh beginning.

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President Robert Mugabe is allegedly trying to use indigenisation to lure votes in the country’s next elections. If that is true, then it is nothing new because Mugabe announced nearly 10 years ago that his government was introducing a new indigenisation bill that would require companies to allocate a minimum of 20 percent shareholding to their workers.

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Geoff Nyarota was one of Zimbabwe’s most celebrated journalists until something went wrong at the newspaper that he had started- The Daily News. The newspaper lives on, having been shut down for seven years, but without him. There are 19 Wikileaks cables on him.

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Professor Masipula Sithole told United States embassy officials in the run-up to the 2002 presidential elections that Zimbabwe had never had free and fair elections.

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Maurice Nyagumbo, who was one of the top five in the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front soon after the merger with the Zimbabwe African People’s Union, was the leader of a faction of the Manyika that was loyal to President Robert Mugabe and opposed the other Manyika faction led by Edgar Tekere.

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Police on 12 September 2003 raided the offices and printing press of The Daily News forcing production to cease.

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