CIO splash out US$5 million on 200 vehicles

By Lance Guma
10 February 2010

The country’s notorious Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) is reported to have purchased an unspecified number of Nissan twincab trucks for as yet unexplained reasons. Lionel Saungweme our correspondent in Bulawayo reports that each CIO ‘district’ was given 5 vehicles to use in their operations. Initial estimates put the number of cars bought at around 200, meaning the agency splashed out approximately US$5 million, at US$25 000 per car.

Such expenditure would have been enough to pay each of the country’s 230 000 civil servants an extra US$22 each for one month. Saungweme reports that 4 of these trucks (3 white and 1 grey), whose registration numbers start with ABM, are already in use and parked outside the CIO provincial headquarters at Magnet House in Bulawayo. Information remains sketchy but sources with links in the agency confirmed the vehicles were assembled in South Africa and the CIO took delivery of them in January.

Coincidentally, South African Police Services National Commissioner Bheki Cele was in Zimbabwe in January. During his visit he met Police Commissioner Augustine Chihuri in Harare, and spoke about the need for all forces in Africa to work together to weed out crime. Many linked Cele’s visit with security preparations for the World Cup in South Africa and our source says it was even thought the cars given to the CIO were meant to be part of some joint security project between the two countries.
Co-Home Affairs Minister Giles Mutsekwa denied any knowledge of the vehicle purchases. He however said the CIO budget fell under the Presidents Office and was not subject to any parliamentary scrutiny or audit. “These are some of the things we need to change,” he added.

The developments will worry members of the MDC and other activists in civil society who have been subject to abductions and torture by the CIO using similar trucks. With the coalition government having run into a deadlock over the way forward and talk of a possible election in 2011 the purchase of these cars will fuel suspicions. This has also not been helped by the gradual deployment of youth militia and the maintenance of torture bases around the country by elements loyal to Mugabe’s regime.

Meanwhile, expenditure by the CIO remains shrouded in secrecy. Recently a Sunday Times report disclosed how members of the spy agency guarding Mugabe on his overseas trip rake in US$5000 a day in allowances. When Mugabe traveled to Switzerland last year in October a CIO team of 6 men and 1 woman were paid the huge allowances to keep him safe. For 10 days in Switzerland they accumulated a total of US$50 000 each in cash allowances.

A similar trip by Mugabe to Italy saw his security guards receive the same amount of money, while other members from the 60-strong delegation raked in US$2000 each per day. The trip to Italy cost taxpayers a total of US$1,4 million. The reports said large sums of money are still being extracted from the budget and placed at Mugabe’s disposal, using all sorts of scams to circumvent the Finance Minister Tendai Biti. Biti meanwhile called for restraint after revealing that £18m was spent on foreign travel alone in 10 months.