Tsvangirai accused Britain and South Africa of trying to maintain ZANU-PF in power

Movement for Democratic Change leader Morgan Tsvangirai on 18 December 2002 accused Britain and South Africa of working with elements in the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front the maintain ZANU-PF’s hold on power.

In a statement he said “…a cabal within ZANU-PF, working with some businessmen, have hatched a plan to protect Mugabe and his regime, for political convenience, through a further militarization of Zimbabwe.

One Colonel Dyke and his business associates are being used to promote an agenda that seeks to legitimize the rogue regime. The names of Emmerson Mnangagwa and General Zvinavashe keep on coming up in this dirty plan which we are told was endorsed by ZANU-PF, the British and the South Africans.”

Full cable:

Viewing cable 02HARARE2829, TSVANGIRAI LEVELS ACCUSATIONS AGAINST BRITAIN AND

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This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.

C O N F I D E N T I A L HARARE 002829

SIPDIS

LONDON FOR CGURNEY

PARIS FOR CNEARY

NSC FOR SENIOR AFRICA DIRECTOR JENDAYI FRAZER

E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/18/2012

TAGS: PGOV PREL ZI MDC

SUBJECT: TSVANGIRAI LEVELS ACCUSATIONS AGAINST BRITAIN AND

SOUTH AFRICA

Classified By: political section chief Matt Harrington. Reasons: 1.5 (

B) and (D).

¶1. (C) In a move that could create quite a firestorm,

Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader Morgan Tsvangirai

issued a press statement on December 18 accusing the British

and South African governments of working in cahoots with

certain elements of ZANU-PF to maintain the ruling party’s

hold on power. In his statement, Tsvangirai said “…a cabal

within ZANU-PF, working with some businessmen, have hatched a

plan to protect Mugabe and his regime, for political

convenience, through a further militarization of Zimbabwe.

One Colonel Dyke (sic) and his business associates are being

used to promote an agenda that seeks to legitimize the rogue

regime. The names of (Speaker of Parliament and ZANU-PF

Secretary of Administration) Emmerson Mnangagwa and

SIPDIS

(Commander of the Defense Forces) General Zvinavashe keep on

coming up in this dirty plan which we are told was endorsed

by ZANU-PF, the British and the South Africans.” Tsvangirai

goes on to say that this effort is intended to be

kick-started by a meeting between himself and Robert Mugabe

outside the country, but warns that “the Anglo-South African

plan will fail to take off if it remains predicated on the

desire to legitimize the illegitimate Mugabe regime.

¶2. (C) Comment: Tsvangirai clearly has heard of efforts by

several different parties to broker a political way forward

and has assumed they are all part and parcel of the same

initiative. It is unclear why he decided to shine the public

spotlight on these efforts now. We surmise that he wanted to

avoid being presented with a political solution that involved

token MDC membership in a ZANU-PF government as a fait

accompli, and being portrayed as the intransigent party for

refusing to endorse such an approach. It will be interesting

to see how the Zimbabwean and South African governments react

to Tsvangirai’s statement. What seems a likely consequence

is that South Africa and other potential political brokers

might pull back from peace-making efforts in the near-term.

End Comment.

South African efforts on Zimbabwe

——————————————— —-

¶3. (C) Prior to the issuance of Tsvangirai’s statement, his

senior advisor, Gandi Mudzingwa, received a call from

President Mbeki’s office the night of December 17, asking

whether Tsvangirai was prepared to travel outside of Zimbabwe

to meet with President Mugabe. The caller said the SAG could

arrange for the temporary return of Tsvangirai’s passport,

seized when the MDC leader was charged with treason for

allegedly planning Mugabe’s assassination.  Mudzingwa

subsequently sought additional details from the intelligence

chief at the South African High Commission in Harare, who

said he was not fully briefed on this initiative. The South

African intelligence officer, however, reported that Foreign

Minister Zuma was planning a trip to Harare in the next week

or two to meet with Tsvangirai and Emmerson Mnangagwa.

¶4. (C) Meanwhile, we know that Father Fidelis Mukonori, who

has on several past occasions attempted to broker dialogue

between President Mugabe and the MDC, has once again begun to

feel out both sides on their willingness to talk. He has

not, however, put a concrete proposal on the table. Mukonori

had not spoken with senior MDC leaders in quite some time

until contacting Mudzingwa to arrange a meeting on December

¶18. We will get a readout of that conversation and report it

septel.

SULLIVAN

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