Manicaland was a hotbed of opposition to President Robert Mugabe because of the several sins he had committed against the people of the province and his shifting of power to Mashonaland at the expense of Manicaland.
This was said by a Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front central committee member Manatsa Mutasa who listed Mugabe’s transgressions as:
- the unforgotten/unforgiven murder of ZANU Chairman Herbert Chitepo in Zambia in 1975, allegedly by Mugabe’s forces;
- the government’s refusal to allow the burial of the founder and first president of ZANU Ndabaningi Sithole at Heroes Acre in 2000;
- and the imposition several years ago by the government of an unacceptable chief on the Mutasa dynasty after the heir showed signs of anti-ZANU-PF sentiment.
Mutasa said that Mugabe had suspended most CIO provincial heads and CIO chief Happyton Bonyongwe on suspicion of sympathy with presidential aspirant Simba Makoni.
He pointed out that Bonyongwe, along with Makoni, Morgan Tsvangirai, Arthur Mutambara and Edgar Tekere were all from Manicaland.
Full cable:
Viewing cable 08HARARE231, DISILLUSIONED CENTRAL COMMITTEE MEMBER SEEKS OUT
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Reference ID |
Created |
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Classification |
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VZCZCXRO6310
PP RUEHDU RUEHMR RUEHRN
DE RUEHSB #0231/01 0870921
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
P 270921Z MAR 08 ZDS MESSAGE RECEIVED GARBLED
FM AMEMBASSY HARARE
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 2630
INFO RUCNSAD/SOUTHERN AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT COMMUNITY
RUEHUJA/AMEMBASSY ABUJA 1886
RUEHAR/AMEMBASSY ACCRA 1839
RUEHDS/AMEMBASSY ADDIS ABABA 1963
RUEHBY/AMEMBASSY CANBERRA 1240
RUEHDK/AMEMBASSY DAKAR 1597
RUEHKM/AMEMBASSY KAMPALA 2019
RUEHNR/AMEMBASSY NAIROBI 4450
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC
RUEHGV/USMISSION GENEVA 1090
RHEHAAA/NSC WASHDC
RHMFISS/JOINT STAFF WASHDC
RUEHC/DEPT OF LABOR WASHDC
RUEATRS/DEPT OF TREASURY WASHDC
RHEFDIA/DIA WASHDC//DHO-7//
RUCPDOC/DEPT OF COMMERCE WASHDC
RUFOADA/JAC MOLESWORTH RAF MOLESWORTH UK//DOOC/ECMO/CC/DAO/DOB/DOI//
RUEPGBA/CDR USEUCOM INTEL VAIHINGEN GE//ECJ23-CH/ECJ5M//
C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 HARARE 000231
SIPDIS
C O R R E C T E D COPY (MESSAGE GARBLED)
SIPDIS
AF/S FOR S. HILL
NSC FOR SENIOR AFRICA DIRECTOR B. PITTMAN
STATE PASS TO USAID FOR L.DOBBINS AND E.LOKEN
TREASURY FOR J. RALYEA AND T.RAND
COMMERCE FOR BECKY ERKUL
ADDIS ABABA FOR USAU
ADDIS ABABA FOR ACSS
E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/27/2018
SUBJECT: DISILLUSIONED CENTRAL COMMITTEE MEMBER SEEKS OUT
AMBASSADOR
HARARE 00000231 001.2 OF 003
Classified By: Ambassador James D. McGee for reason 1.4 (d)
——-
SUMMARY
——-
¶1. (C) The Ambassador met March 24 with Manatsa Mutasa, a
member of the Central Committee from Manicaland. Immensely
disillusioned with ruling party corruption and no longer
supporting ZANU-PF candidates in the election, he told the
Ambassador that Morgan Tsvangirai had enough countrywide
support to win the election on the first round, but rigging
of the postal ballot vote had already begun and would
guarantee Mugabe’s victory. Mutasa was distrustful of Simba
Makoni’s break with Mugabe and discounted his candidacy
except for its usefulness in exposing the divisions in
ZANU-PF. He said a purge of ZANU-PF had begun and would
worsen; CIO chief Happyton Bonyongwe and most CIO provincial
heads had been suspended from duty on suspicion of
disloyalty. He explained that Manicaland was fertile ground
for opposition to ZANU-PF because its leaders had been
sidelined from power since before independence. END SUMMARY.
——————————————— —-
Rigging of Postal Votes – The Numbers Don’t Tally
——————————————— —-
¶2. (C) EconOff met Mutasa at his home in Watsomba in the
Mutasa Central district during a mission pre-election tour of
Manicaland; during that meeting, Mutasa requested a meeting
with the Ambassador. He told the Ambassador that election
rigging had already begun and would assure Mugabe the
presidency by a narrow first-round margin. Soldiers and
police had been given 4-5 absentee ballots each and told to
vote for Mugabe. The Central Intelligence Organization (CIO)
stood ready to move in the stuffed ballot boxes in districts
where the extra votes could tip the scales to Mugabe. In
addition, Mutasa expected many voters to be turned away from
the polls for lack of time on voting day, further reducing
the number of opposition votes. He said MDC presidential
candidate Morgan Tsvangirai had enough support from both
urban and rural Zimbabweans, driven primarily by the economic
meltdown, to win the election in the first round if it were
not rigged. Simba Makoni’s late entry into the race would
have delivered the vote to the MDC “on a silver platter” by
dividing ZANU-PF if the election were free and fair.
——————————————–
The Mutasa Dynasty Disillusioned with Mugabe
——————————————–
¶3. (C) Disgusted with rampant corruption in ZANU-PF, Mutasa
has refused to campaign for the ruling party in this
election. He referred to the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe’s (RBZ)
involvement in the illicit diamond trade in Manicaland and
the use of overseas proxies by Mugabe in his personal
business affairs. He said one evil had replaced another evil
in Zimbabwe since independence. Recognized as disgruntled,
Mutasa had narrowly escaped a beating by thugs of Gender and
Women’s Affairs Minister Oppah Muchinguri this month and now
feared for his life. He recounted to the Ambassador how
Muchinguri (“not even a Manyika — she hails from Masvingo”),
speaking for the Women,s League, had resolved at a Central
Committee meeting in December that Mugabe be made President
for life, only to have the resolution shot down by Vice
HARARE 00000231 002.2 OF 003
President Msika. Mutasa said Speaker of Parliament John
Nkomo and Minister Muchinguri, who is running for Parliament
in Mutasa Central, were considering suspending him from the
party after he failed to appear at a Nkomo-led rally in the
district on March 8. Further disqualifying Mutasa among
ruling party stalwarts, Mutasa’s niece, Eunice Mangwende a
former director in the Ministry of Information, is running
against Muchinguri in Mutasa Central as a pro-Makoni
independent candidate, and his nephew, Lincoln Mutasa, heir
to the Mutasa chieftainship, is an independent candidate for
the Senate from the same area.
¶4. (C) On Simba Makoni, Mutasa was mistrustful of his “double
talk” about leadership change rather than regime change and
suggested that Makoni and Mugabe were probably in some way
still connected. It had been understood for years that
Mugabe would relinquish power to Makoni, but, in the end,
Mugabe had refused. Mutasa told the Ambassador that Zimbabwe
needed “totally different leaders, a totally different party”
and that ZANU-PF should be voted out of power until it
rehabilitates itself. Nevertheless, the liberation war
veteran who lost vision in one eye in the bush war told
EconOff that he would never “cross the floor,” i.e. change
parties.
¶5. (C) Mutasa recommended harsh sanctions against Zimbabwe if
Mugabe is declared president and also asked the Ambassador
whether the USG had influence on the International Criminal
Court (ICC) to issue a warrant for Mugabe’s arrest based on
the Matabeleland massacres of the 1980s; he said Mugabe
feared prosecution. Reiterating that “Mugabe has to go,”
Mutasa let drop that a group of “concerned individuals” had
decided to take steps to remove him and Mutasa had been
tasked with procuring the necessary “material” to do the job.
Without noting when the plan was hatched or who the
participants were, he said he was still in possession of the
material.
————————–
Violence and ZANU-PF Purge
————————–
¶6. (C) In response to the Ambassador’s question about a
possible backlash against the opposition, Mutasa feared
violence if Mugabe succeeds in stealing the presidency, and
violence, especially within ZANU-PF (it’s “torn to pieces”),
if Tsvangirai wins. Under either election outcome, a purge
in ZANU-PF had already begun and would only deepen. He
recounted that ZANU-PF youths, driven by mistrust, had beaten
up other youths wearing ZANU-PF t-shirts after the rally led
by John Nkomo in his district a week earlier; “people in
ZANU-PF will disappear and be killed.” At his home a week
earlier, Mutasa told us that half the Central Committee no
longer supported Mugabe and he assumed that the Politburo was
similarly divided.
———————————
Manicaland – Hotbed of Opposition
———————————
¶7. (C) Mutasa told the Ambassador that Mugabe had recently
suspended most CIO provincial heads and CIO chief Happyton
Bonyongwe on suspicion of sympathy with presidential aspirant
Simba Makoni. He pointed out that Bonyongwe, along with
Makoni, Morgan Tsvangirai, Arthur Mutambara and Edgar Tekere
HARARE 00000231 003.2 OF 003
were all from Manicaland. At his earlier meeting with
EconOff, Mutasa had explained several reasons why Manicaland
was a particular hotbed of opposition to Mugabe: the
stranglehold on power by the tribes of Mashonaland since
independence at the expense of the Manyikas; the
unforgotten/unforgiven murder of ZANU Chairman Herbert
Chitepo in Zambia in 1975, allegedly by Mugabe’s forces; the
GOZ’s refusal to allow the burial of the founder and first
president of ZANU Ndabaningi Sithole at Heroes Acre in 2000
(NOTE: Both Chitepo and Sithole were from Manicaland. END
NOTE.); and the imposition several years ago by the GOZ of an
unacceptable chief on the Mutasa dynasty after the heir
showed signs of anti-ZANU-PF sentiment.
——-
COMMENT
——-
¶8. (C) Mutasa is one of about 180 members of the Central
Committee and not a major player in Zimbabwe’s politics.
Nevertheless, he has been an insider, is well informed, and
could be of use to us. He appears to be reaching out to us
now out of credible deep disillusionment with ZANU-PF. We
are not blind, however, to the possibility that he has other
motives. We were particularly concerned by his vague
reference to a past assassination plot, and made no reaction
whatsoever to this story. END COMMENT.
MCGEE
(38 VIEWS)
