While I am aware of some political and structural reasons why the coup was not stopped or could not be stopped, it should be said that the November 2017 coup was stoppable, even as it unfolded. Those who did the coup took a risky chance and they were surprised by their luck when the coup was not resisted between 15 and 19 November. By 19 November, President Mugabe believed that the coup would not proceed based on his engagement with Chiwenga who seemed more concerned about his security of tenure and Zanu PF succession which he wanted settled at the December 2017 special Congress. In fact, Chiwenga wanted President Mugabe to remain in office to serve out his term but to handover leadership of the party at a special Zanu PF Congress. In the same vein, Chiwenga wanted the so-called “G40 criminals” who were alleged to be surrounding the President to be dropped from cabinet and politburo and prosecuted for “treason” as a settlement of the military action.
Chiwenga was baying for my head as was Mnangagwa. At the very least, they wanted me prosecuted for what they alleged was treason. That is still their plan to this day, which they have been pursuing under false ZimDef allegations which now include laughable claims that I bought properties with ZimDef funds costing over $3 million citing Pandhari Lodge, a property adjacent to State House and some and bank deposits which ZimDef, teachers colleges and polytechnics lost at Metbank during the inclusive government between 2009 and 2013. The Pandhari Lodge and State House properties were purchased by Washington Mbizvo who was Permanent Secretary long before I was appointed Minister of Higher Education in July 2015.I have wondered why they don’t ask Oppah Muchinguri who, as my predecessor, should know better about these and other properties. I am also baffled why they don’t ask Ozias Bvute and Enoch Kamushinda about over $11 million of ZimDef funds and deposits from colleges and polytechnics that went missing at Zimbank between 2009 and 2013.Fortunately, all this is well documented.
I tell this story in detail in the autobiography I am working on for publication next year under the title, “Letters to My Father”. I know for a fact, especially with documented information that became known after the coup, that if Chiwenga’s soldiers had found me at our home in the wee hours of 15 November 2017, they would have killed me. Part of the evidence for this is how the soldiers were vicious and destructive when they attacked our home and the destruction of rooms and property they did once in the house which they looted and occupied for some 10 days after 15 November. There was no question of arresting me. Chiwenga’s soldiers were on a mission to kill me. Just like the Gukurahundi soldiers killed my father, to whom my autobiography is addressed. The soldiers did not find my family and me at home because I was tipped by other soldiers to evacuate my family from the house and not sleep at our home under any circumstance.
So, while I could not use the information I had about the coup to stop the coup or to pre-empt it, I did use crucial information about the coup to get my family and myself out of assured harm’s way by getting out of our house which had been earmarked as a death trap for me with unknown risks to my family given the excessively violent manner the soldiers attacked and entered our home. I have seen narratives that focus on a tweet I posted on 13 November 2017 directed at Chiwenga and telling him that while he was giving his press conference I was “zete” sleeping at my home.Ignoramuses take that as a sign we did not know a coup was in the making. That banter was precisely because everyone knew there was trouble in paradise.
But to your question, President Mugabe did not believe that Chiwenga would carry out the coup to the point of ousting him from power and he believed this to be the case up to 19 November when he gave the now famous “Asante Sana” speech which left a clear impression that he was not going anywhere.But Mnangagwa and his cronies, supported by some military elements not linked to Chiwenga wanted President Mugabe to be toppled by the Army and they were uncompromising about this. By 20 November 2017 the likes of Paul Mangwana, Patrick Chinamasa and Jacob Mudenda—to mention but three names in Zanu PF—were waving legal scenarios to force Mugabe to resign under threat of getting Parliament to impeach him if the Army strategy was encountering challenges. Again, the rest is history.
In summary, the notion that people were caught by surprise is simply not true.What is true is that specific actions by the Army, many of them which were ad hoc or spontaneous, were of course not known. And it is true that President Mugabe did not believe that Chiwenga and Mnangagwa would lead or be associated with any military action to topple him. I offer reasons for this in the two books I am working on.
Next: Jonathan Moyo says Mugabe distrusted everyone including me, but not Mnangagwa and Chiwenga
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