Categories: Stories

ZANU-PF mole sold Mugabe out in 2008

A Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front mole told United States ambassador to Zimbabwe James McGee that Mugabe knew he was going to lose the March 2008 elections, five days before the poll, according to a report in BusinessWeek which raises, once again, the issue that a United States hedge fund bankrolled Mugabe’s violent campaign in the presidential elections run-off.

The report said the mole told McGee two weeks after the first round loss that Mugabe was preparing for war and had launched an intimidation campaign of torture and killing in areas that had voted for the opposition Movement for Democratic Change.

McGee said in one of his cables to Washington released by Wikileaks that he was informed that Mugabe was prepared to concede defeat two days after the 29 March elections but later changed his mind.

Despite having moles including in the military McGee, did not know about the US$100 million windfall until four years later though the amount according to BusinessWeek  was more than all the money the country had at the time.

When told that Zimbabwe was given the cash only nine days after Mugabe lost, McGee said:  “That’s how all the good work we do, or try to do, gets blown away in nine days.”

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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.

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