Mugabe coup plot mastermind turns out to be small time crook

By Lance Guma
15 November 2007

The man accused of plotting a coup to topple Robert Mugabe has turned out to be a small time crook who left the United Kingdom after a BBC investigation exposed how he assisted fraudulent asylum claims. In 2004 undercover reporters working for BBC Radio 5 Live exposed how Albert Matapo’s Zimbabwean Community UK charity group sold fake Home Office letters, granting asylum and national insurance numbers which are important for securing employment. Now back in Zimbabwe Matapo and 6 other men were arrested in May this year and charged with treason for attempting to overthrow Mugabe. The state alleged that Matapo wanted to be prime minister, while Rural Housing Minister Emerson Mnangagwa was "invited" to become president.

But as Matapo’s past catches up with him doubts are beginning to emerge about how someone who made a living engaging in petty crimes and fraud could have planned a military coup in Zimbabwe. His ‘Zimbabwean Community UK’ was created in 2003 with an initial £5,000 grant of lottery funding. It is claimed Matapo spent the money on a luxury BMW vehicle and other personal items. Defending the coup plot allegations this week he dragged in Zimbabwe Association (UK) official Patson Muzuva accusing him of framing him over the fraud allegations, with the help of the BBC. A furious Muzuva told Newsreel that Matapo should focus on the coup plot allegations and leave his name out of the trial.

Muzuva said his only interaction with Matapo was when the Zimbabwe Community UK facilitated a trip by Reserve Bank governor Gideon Gono, to promote the Home Link scheme. Muzuva said he campaigned aggressively against that trip and this might be the reason why Matapo is picking on him now. He said Matapo had a fall-out with his own colleagues about the way they spent the lottery funding and they ended up reporting each other to the authorities in the UK. But Matapo’s Zanu PF links, which he previously denied, came out in court when he claimed Foreign Affairs Minister Simbarashe Mumbengegwi knew he was in the UK ‘for the purpose of promoting national interests.’

It’s not yet clear whether Matapo was deported from the UK, but several people who lost money to his organization are eager to recover it. Observers suggest that he has now become a convenient scapegoat in the succession power play within Zanu PF.