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ZANU PF heavyweights are said to have been behind the bloody 2008 presidential election runoff which the MDC claimed resulted in the death of more than 200 of its supporters.
According to US embassy cables released by WikiLeaks, former Gender and Women’s Affairs minister Oppah Muchinguri, air force commander Perrence Shiri, and State Security minister Didymus Mutasa as well as former cabinet minister Kumbirai Kangai incited some of the worst violence.
The cable dated April 10 2008 says that Zanu PF central committee member Manatsa Mutasa, who was described as “disillusioned”, told ambassador James McGee that Zanu PF had been disturbed by MDC-T leader Morgan Tsvangirai’s victory in the March 2008 election and had hatched a plan to intimidate MDC leaders and supporters.
Mutasa told the US embassy that bases and command centres were set up in the bush and manned by “off duty soldiers”.
“Disillusioned central committee member Manatsa Mutasa told us that the politburo recognised MDC (Morgan) Tsvangirai had won 48% of the presidential vote against Mugabe’s 43%,” read the cable.
“Consequently, the ruling party had begun a campaign of violence, spearheaded by minister Oppah Muchinguri, Deputy Speaker of Parliament Kumbirai Kangai, Air Marshall Perrence Shiri and minister Didymus Mutasa to intimidate the population and MDC leaders.”
Manatsa Mutasa further projected that Zanu PF would petrol bomb its own offices and blame the MDC, therefore opening space for President Robert Mugabe to declare a state of emergency and cancel the run-off.
He also separately related an election incident of a customs official tipping off the police about stuffed ballot boxes coming across the border and their subsequent seizure by the police.
“Mutasa told us today that politburo representatives on April 4 had informed the Manicaland members of the Zanu PF central committee, including himself, that MDC-T had won 48%of the presidential vote and Robert Mugabe 43%,” the cable reads.
According to the cable, Manatsa Mutasa was so convinced there would be no election run-off as and even with rigging and intimidation, the ruling party could not guarantee a Mugabe victory.
He said from the politburo level down, Zanu PF was now preparing for war and those bases and command centres were being set up in the bush as “centres of torture and even killing”.
“They were designed to intimidate people and “drive MDC kingpins to run away.” Manatsa Mutasa also said the politburo had given the green light for the invasion of all remaining white-owned farms.
He revealed that violence spread so much and his own shop and office in Watsomba in Mutasa Central had been ransacked and looted.
“Several of them had been dragged from their homes in the night and beaten. Lists of targeted persons were being drawn up at a provincial Zanu PF meeting yesterday before Mutasa was expelled from the meeting, although he said in the provincial Zanu PF structure he outranked all others present.”
Asked why Zanu PF had not protected Muchinguri from her humiliating defeat in Mutasa Central, Manatsa Mutasa said rigging had most likely been planned, but a customs official had tipped off the police that nine stuffed ballot boxes had crossed from the nearby Mozambique border and police had intercepted them on the road to Mutasa Central.
Although McGee described Manatsa Mutasa as disillusioned, he saw his fear as real since his version of violence and intimidation corresponded with other referenced reports the embassy had received.
— Staff writer
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