via Revealed: Didymus Mutasa’s Rhodesian spy links – The Sunday Mail Jan 18, 2015
Former Zanu-PF secretary for administration Didymus Mutasa was an agent of the colonial British South Africa Police (BSAP) Special Branch, it has emerged.
Disclosing details of Mutasa’s links with the Rhodesian establishment for the first time, sources said his allegiances were discovered during the transition from the Ian Smith regime to majority rule in 1980.
The sources said old records listed him as “a top BSAP agent”, and this information has been corroborated by war veterans who have known Mutasa prior to independence.
The BSAP Special Branch was the principal internal security agency of the Rhodesian regime during Ian Smith’s era.
It developed the dreaded Selous Scouts, which was an undercover battalion that murdered and tortured liberation fighters.
Sources said Mutasa could be described – in intelligence parlance – as a long-term sleeper, meaning he was deployed to destroy the liberation movement from within.
The allegations, along with accounts from veterans of the liberation struggle, expose the lie in claims in the private media in recent days that Mutasa was a “pioneer” of the Second Chimurenga, as he was averse to the taking up of arms and held a “Utopian belief that the settler regime could be educated into regarding blacks as equals”.
A source said: “This is confidential information that we have been holding onto for a long time. I am telling you for the first time that Didymus Mutasa was an agent of the BSAP Special Branch.
“I was one of the pioneer officers of the intelligence department and we had records of the BSAP when the security sector was being reconstructed. These records showed that Mutasa was their top agent.
“He is a long-term sleeper. These are people sent to work with the enemy and appear to be one with the enemy, but can be called to carry out specific tasks to destroy the same enemy. This is exactly what he was.”
Minister of Welfare Services for War Veterans, War Collaborators, Former Political Detainees and Restrictees Ambassador Chris Mutsvangwa also said records showed Mutasa’s strong links with the Rhodesian establishment.
“That information holds water if you trace his path in the struggle. He calls himself a cadre and a pioneer of the struggle, but it is all a lie. He was never a member of Zanu before 1977 and neither was he a member of Zapu. His only claim to fame was the non-governmental organisation called Cold Comfort. This was not a party programme, but his own initiative with Guy Clutton-Brock.”
He continued: “One telling fact which shows that he was a sell-out is that when he left the country in 1972, he was escorted by Rhodesia forces. They helped him board the plane that took him to London. This is very significant because real cadres such as President Mugabe had to sneak out of the country as opposed to being escorted. How on earth do you escort your enemy to go out of the country?”
Mutasa – said Ambassador Mutsvangwa – was in the United Kingdom from 1972 to 1977, and only joined the Zanu leadership because of his closeness to national hero Cde Edgar Tekere, a boyhood friend.
He said President Mugabe knew of Mutasa’s BSAP links, but appointed him to key party and Government positions as part of his renowned statecraft and political acumen.
“Edgar Tekere was the (Zanu) secretary-general … So, he had influence and he chose Didymus Mutasa to be one of the leaders of the party. He chose him because the two were home-boys. Tekere considered Mutasa his friend from the days when they were herding cattle together…
“President Mugabe is an astute leader … (and) he would rather prefer a situation where Mutasa shoots himself in the foot. As fate has proven, Mutasa wasted himself away.”
Prior to last year’s Zanu-PF National Congress – which kicked out Mutasa and other conspirators – Ambassador Mutsvangwa spoke of how the former ruling party senior official was actively involved in using “homeboy politics” to get Cde Tekere and Dr Simba Makoni to fruitlessly rebel against President Mugabe’s popular leadership.
Politburo member and war veteran Cde George Rutanhire said Mutasa joined the liberation struggle “at the tail” and was not even in the picture at the Mgagao Declaration that ushered in President Mugabe’s leadership.
“He was not there probably until 1977. He is one of those who supported the struggle in exile but did not know how it felt to be in the liberation struggle. That’s why he is doing what he is doing. He is among other technocrats like Simba Makoni who were in London while we were fighting the colonial regime.
“That’s why it is easy for him to sell out. Honestly, he does not know the pain of staying in the bush and seeing comrades dying…
“I know they look down on us but we are proud fighters of the liberation struggle. It was not easy. That’s why it’s not easy for some of us to betray the revolution. It’s easy for them to do that because they were invited when we had long done all the groundwork for victory.”
In his autobiography, which is tellingly titled “Rhodesian Black Behind Bars”, published in 1974, Mutasa is at pains to explain the actual role he played in the liberation struggle.
He only makes reference to Cold Comfort Farm, which was run as a co-operative.
The book is silent on him planning combat strategies or being involved in the important stages of the war, even though the Second Chimurenga was nearly a decade-old.
Several pages in the book speak about his time in the United Kingdom where he was exiled as the liberation struggle raged back home.
The back cover review describes Mutasa as “a responsible citizen with moderate views on the development of his country”.
A senior military officer – who preferred anonymity – said this was true to his position of approaching the white settler regime passively.
“The title of the book itself tells you something; no one who waged the war against the settlers called themselves a ‘Rhodesian black’. We called ourselves Zimbabweans. This just goes to show his disposition towards the regime and how he considered himself Rhodesian first.”
COMMENTS
Mutsvangwa you are the worst idiotic and overzealous bootlicker that l have ever heard about. Please stop peddling this doodoo stinking propaganda that Mutasa was a double agent. If he was a double agent, with all the intelligence that Mugabe has, why was he for the past 34 years at the top of ZANU PF. Did the intelligence that was used to murder real freedom fighters during the Nhari/Badza massacre in Mozambique failed to detect that. Did the intelligence that was used to murder Chitepo, Tongogara, Nyagumbo, Mahachi and more than half of the so called heroes at MURDERED ACRES failed to detect this as well. Please Mutsvangwa spare us that nonsensical gibberish and concentrate on destroying our beloved country.
I don’t know what history these idiots are going to leave our children. Their records it seems are all lies and half truths. First so and downed a helicopter. Then so and so did not.Then so and so is one of the heroes. Then he is a Rhodesian sleeper agent. The moment you fall out of favor your history changes. That is why these websites such as this one are so important. We might be able to salvage some sort of a history when these fools are gone.Do they not realize that anything that is not present or future is history and these events need to be as accurate as possible.
Thank you so much cde Mutsvangwa for disclosing some of the damaging information that you and zanu pf have been sitting on for a long time, however, in so disclosing you should be aware that unconsciously you may also give hints that a lot of zanu pf leaders were part of that rot. For instance, you disclosed that MR Mugabe knew about cde Mutasa’s links with the BSAP. Does this not link Mugabe to the same rot.
If you read Heidi Holland’s Dinner with Mugabe which states that the Police Supt in Rusape allowed Mugabe, Tekere and Tangwena to pass through as he was instructed by his superiors in Salisbury (now Harare) not to interfere with them on their way to Mozambique and what he did when he illegally assumed party leadership in Mozambique is well documented, eliminating, removing and jailing zanla commanders who were feared by Smith and the West. Does thisnot link Mugabe and his coterie to the same selling out that cde Mutsvangwa seems to crying about over Mutasa.
Can Mutsvangwa tell the nation how Cde Tongogara and Cde Rex Nhongo died since he appears to know a lot of secrets.
Why did Mugabe invite invite a former White Rhodesian Police Officer to work in his office immediately after independence. Why did Mugabe show a soft spot for Ian Smith who publicly announced while in London that some time in the nineties that ‘he enjoyed killing terrorists’ during the armed struggle. People expressed fear that when Ian Smith returned to Harare he would be arrested and tortured, what happened when he landed at Harare airport, he appeared on state tv pushing his luggage trolley and asking where were the people who threatened to arrest him, there was no one. Imagine if it was Muzorewa who had said that.
Again what happened to the so-called war veterans when they invaded Ian Smith’s farm in Shurugwi, they were chased away by the Police.
Talk of double standards by this dubious false revolutionary party.
In parting I wish to say that if Mutasa was a sell out then Mugabe cannot be exonerated from the same label of working with the Whites, he only turned against them when the piblicly donated money to Tsvangirayi’s party. He new tha Mutasawasa sell out because both of them and others still in zanu pf wrere also sell outs.
I like your analysis Kalulu. You only left out that in Mount Darwin the major air strikes and Pungwe bombings were as a result of Kasukuwere’s father. In Masvingo we have Josia Hungwe (Dunira) who used to feature on Muzorewa/Smith’s ‘anti-terrorist’ Broadcasting program singing “Mabhinya-bhinya Chamuka inyama.’
My goodness how history changes with time and with each changing of the guard. We want facts not fiction.
Mutsvangwa is a coward and his claims are a tainted discredit. The only thing I am enjoying about all this is to hope that one of the accused will rise up and tell the nation the truth behind all the evil that zanoids committed against innocent people. I can;t wait!
Hopefully Enos Nkala’s book, when published, will set the record straight.
Also working with Mutasa was Robert Mugabe. The two Robert and Didmus were reportedly members of the BSAP and sold out comrades who were killed at Chimoyo in Mozambique.
The liberation war is very interesting.Since there are so many heroes amongst us. I have been researching hard,just so I understand how the war really was.
Sadly I am yet to come across or read about a battle where the guerillas actually won a against the rhodesian forces.
Secondly it is a common misconception that the guerillas won the war. They did not, they won the 1980 elections not the war.
Tell me again about heroes.
Who wasnt . All those close to thé king since t1980 were serving thé colonial masters agents
.samora was suspicious . Even thé général was questionable. Ask thé vétérans. Thats why they were jailed to death .
If a leopard wants to eat it’s young ones, it starts by accusing them that ua smelling like a goat. Mutsvangwa is the real sellout., a bootleaker.Mugabe, s puppet.if Mutasa was a sellout, so is Mugabe and the whole zanu Pf.Why were u silent all these years.he is nw a sellout bcoz he is different from your opinion.