‘Security chiefs love Tsvangirai’

Source: ‘Security chiefs love Tsvangirai’ – DailyNews Live

Fungi Kwaramba      12 May 2017

HARARE – Former Presidential Affairs minister Didymus Mutasa says the
country’s security chiefs have no issues with opposition leader Morgan
Tsvangirai, and will readily accept him if he wins next year’s
eagerly-anticipated national elections.

Speaking to the Daily News yesterday, amid lingering citizen anxiety that
securocrats will once again intervene in the country’s politics next year,
Mutasa – who for long was a close confidante of President Robert Mugabe,
and superintended over the much-feared Central Intelligence Organisation
(CIO) – said the fear was misplaced.

He also revealed that contrary to public perceptions, security chiefs had
allegedly accepted Mugabe’s stunning defeat by Tsvangirai in the
hotly-disputed 2008 polls – adding, for emphasis, that “nothing has
changed”.

“When Tsvangirai won the elections in 2008, he left the country soon
after, even though the military had accepted his win. I am sure that the
military will accept his victory again this time.

“The military respect and will respect the will of the people. In 2008,
people spoke and Tsvangirai disappeared. At that time, I was the head of
the security establishment and I am quite sure that nothing would have
happened to Tsvangirai had he stayed.

“We have rules and the security will not change our laws. Our Constitution
is very clear on this,” Mutasa said.

Nevertheless, there is a latent fear among both ordinary Zimbabweans and
the opposition that the military will never accept anyone who does not
have liberation war credentials as the country’s leader.

This fear follows the controversial move by the late General Vitalis
Zvinavashe, who addressed a media conference just before the 2002
presidential elections – while in the company of other security chiefs –
and threatened opposition leaders.

“We wish to make it very clear to all Zimbabwean citizens that the
security organisations will only stand in support of those political
leaders that will pursue Zimbabwean values, traditions and beliefs for
which thousands of lives were lost …

“Let it be known that the highest office in the land is a straightjacket
whose occupant is expected to observe the objectives of the liberation
struggle.

“We will therefore not accept, let alone support or salute anyone with a
different agenda that threatens the very existence of our sovereignty, our
country and our people,” he thundered ominously then.

Some serving military chiefs have also, since then, expressed similar
views, stoking fears that even if the opposition was to win the watershed
2018 elections, the security establishment would subvert the will of the
people.

But Mutasa insisted that such views were not universally-held within the
security establishment – whose members were also feeling the pinch of the
country’s economic meltdown.

He also said recent remarks by Defence Forces commander Constantino
Chiwenga who referred to Zanu PF as “our party” last month – in a
statement which drew heavy fire from the opposition – did not “mean much”.

“There are so many people who may vote against his (Chiwenga’s) preferred
candidate and he will do nothing because the army respects the will of the
people,” Mutasa said.

In recent months, Tsvangirai has repeatedly gone out of his way to assure
security chiefs that nothing will happen to them if he wins the watershed
2018 elections.

“I have a message to those who have in the past resisted change and who
remain keen to subvert the people’s will because of their uncertainty due
to the prospect of political change in the country.

“I wish to assure everyone that there is nothing to fear in the change
that we seek. We have no intention to engage in retribution, and we are
only driven by the genuine patriotic spirit to ensure peace, stability and
growth.

“Change will be good for everyone. Change will allow everyone to pursue
and live their dreams under the protection of the State,” Tsvangirai has
said.

Mutasa also warned Tsvangirai yesterday that he did not need to hurry the
formation of the mooted grand opposition alliance, as there was the
possibility of this alliance being infiltrated by the ruling Zanu PF.

“The way that they want to go about forming a coalition zvakadhakwa (it is
a big problem). They should stand as separate parties and then only form a
coalition after the elections,” he said.

Two years ago, Mutasa also made stunning revelations that he and other
Zanu PF officials had been left numbed after Tsvangirai’s swept to victory
in the 2008 elections.

“I immediately drove, at speed and alone, from my home in Rusape, to State
House in Harare. I was terrified, I had to go and protect the president
(Mugabe) from harm as we were frightened Tsvangirai would do what he said
he would do and march to State House. If he had, no policeman would have
stopped him.

“Instead,” Mutasa laughed, “Tsvangirai went to Botswana.”

“I don’t know how much cheating there was in those elections, but I do
know that in 2013 (Finance minister) Patrick Chinamasa cheated to win. He
bussed people in (to vote for him.) I protested to him and to the Zimbabwe
Electoral Commission.

“We will never know how many people voted for Zanu PF out of fear. I
didn’t know there was fear in those days. I now see it myself. And there
is a lot of fear. And I must say, again, I am very, very sorry. That I
must stand up to be counted,” he added then.

“Secrecy still binds me, from when I was minister. But, of course, you
know that some waiters in hotels work for the CIO. Your phones are
listened to a lot. The CIO is huge,” Mutasa added.