Categories: Stories

The Morgan Tsvangirai Wikileaks cables-Part Four

The former archbishop of Bulawayo Pius Ncube said Zimbabweans, both educated and uneducated, were unhappy with President Robert Mugabe and were waiting for someone to lead them but Movement or Democratic Change leader Morgan Tsvangirai was too weak to do that.

He told this to the then United States Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Walter Kansteiner when he visited him at the Catholic Cathedral in Bulawayo just before the 2002 presidential elections.

Ncube said the people of Zimbabwe, and Matabeleland in particular, were so scared, they would not rise up against the government, even if Mugabe won re-election,

United States embassy officials who accompanied Kansteiner said Ncube stood with Kansteiner’s  delegation as it arrived and briefly kept them outside his office building, apparently so that suspected Central Intelligence Organisation agents in the Cathedral compound could see that he was meeting with American officials.

The CIO ended his career a few years later when they trapped the clergyman and video-taped him having sex with a married woman. Ncube was forced to resign and was briefly transferred to Rome but that cut short his activism.

Ncube said Tsvangirai was too weak to lead the people of Zimbabwe because he too was intimidated by the government.

He said that he would be equally opposed to the MDC if it proved to be just as corrupt as ZANU-PF.

Below are the first 80 of 726 Wikileaks cables on Tsvangirai.

Continued next page

(359 VIEWS)

This post was last modified on August 11, 2017 9:09 pm

Page: 1 2 3 4 5

Charles Rukuni

The Insider is a political and business bulletin about Zimbabwe, edited by Charles Rukuni. Founded in 1990, it was a printed 12-page subscription only newsletter until 2003 when Zimbabwe's hyper-inflation made it impossible to continue printing.

Recent Posts

Britain says amendment of the Zimbabwean Constitution is a sovereign, legislative matter for Zimbabwe to decide

Britain says amendment of the Zimbabwe constitution is a sovereign, legislative matter for Zimbabwe to…

March 24, 2026

Who started the war?

It is now 47 years since I wrote the short story below for a South…

March 4, 2026

Zimbabwe 2026 monetary policy statement at a glance

Zimbabwe has released its 2026 monetary policy statement in which it seeks to stabilise its…

March 1, 2026

Was Chombo Mugabe’s number two?

Far from it, on paper that is. Ignatius Chombo was one of the longest serving…

February 6, 2026

Zimbabwe’s 2026 citizen’s budget

Zimbabwe on Thursday announced a ZiG290.9 billion budget with revenue expected to be ZiG287.6 billion,…

November 30, 2025

IMF says Zimbabwe’s economic recovery in 2025 is stronger than previously anticipated

The International Monetary Fund says Zimbabwe’s economic recovery in 2025 is stronger than previously anticipated…

November 8, 2025