Mujuru backed Makoni for president

by Irene Madongo
06 September 2011

A WikiLeaks cable has revealed that the late ZANU PF stalwart and former military chief, Solomon Mujuru, actively supported Simba Makoni’s presidential bid.

The cable shows that by 2008 Mujuru, like other party figures including Dumiso Dabengwa, was highly frustrated by Robert Mugabe’s leadership and wanted him out, to make way for Makoni. It is revealed that Mujuru was actively supporting Makoni, going around the party’s structures to get their backing for him.

US Ambassador James McGee says a key Mujuru aid informed him that: “Mujuru, who was an active supporter and advisor of Makoni, had been traveling extensively throughout the country to gauge Makoni’s support.”

In March 2008 Mujuru allegedly met with Mugabe and urged him to step down, but Mugabe refused. A politburo meeting was arranged, where it was planned that key members would put additional pressure for Mugabe to step down, McGee’s cable shows. The idea was that if Mugabe did not step down, there would be public ZANU PF defections to Makoni.

‘There could be “fireworks” at the meeting, If Mugabe did not step down, there could be additional and public ZANU-PF defections to Makoni by the end of the week,” McGee wrote.

But it turns out that Mugabe subsequently went public to declare that Mujuru was actually backing him and not Makoni. “Mugabe subsequently told the press Mujuru was supporting him and not Makoni, but this was clearly not the case,” the leaked cable went on to say.

According to the cable the reason Mujuru chickened out was because he feared that if he turned against Mugabe, the system would use his often corrupt business deals to get him thrown into jail. Ambassador McGhee added that Mujuru had not gone public earlier because he feared jeopardizing his wife Vice President Joice Mujuru’s position.

See cable

On Tuesday, political analyst Dr John Makumbe backed the cable’s allegations, saying Mujuru was indeed personally threatened by Mugabe.

“Some of us have known about this for a long time. He chickened out after he was threatened with exposure by the president himself,” Makumbe explains, “his own catalogue of sins was read to him and he was told if he goes ahead with the Makoni project he would also answer charges against himself pertaining to his business deals and other arrangements he had made, particularly in the pursuing of certain companies in Zimbabwe.”

Makumbe said these revelations show that ZANU PF is a divided party and key figures have no loyalty to Mugabe. “They are not always towing the party line, they are not always listening or obeying what Mugabe dictates to them,” he said. “It’s not all rosy within ZANU PF, there’s a lot of divisions in there and a lot of rebellion.”

Also revealed, is that one of Mugabe’s aides, Nicholas Goche (then the Minister of Public Service) told the Ambassador that even if Makoni did win votes in his presidential bid, it would be at the expense of the MDC-T’s leader Morgan Tsvangirai, which would be very good for ZANU PF.

See cable

On Tuesday ZANU PF spokesman Rugare Gumbo said his party had no comment to make on the matter. Makoni meanwhile denied the allegations. His party spokesman said that in February 2008 Makoni stated that many people in both ZANU-PF and the MDC supported his candidature for presidency and those who supported him came out publicly.