News / National
Zimbabwe coup wasn't an overnight affair
04 Dec 2017 at 03:29hrs | Views
Former Higher and Tertiary Education minister Jonathan Moyo says the Zimbabwe coup d'etat was not an overnight 15 Nov affair triggered by former First Lady, Grace Mugabe, or propelled by the 18 November demonstration.
Moyo wrote, "The quote below from @Welshman_Ncube in the @thestandardzim yesterday speaks for itself. The Coup D'etat wasn't an overnight 15 Nov affair triggered by former First Lady or propelled by the 18 Nov demos. No. It was a long planned & very sinister ZDF power grab waiting to happen!"
"The G40 cabal saw the coup coming including Grace, the military themselves always warned, you recall General Chiwenga actually at one point, three or so months ago claimed that the gun always leads politics and Mugabe replied that politics has always led the gun in Zanu PF," the MDC leader said.
"You will also recall Jonathan Moyo's presentation to the politburo about state capture, that all state institutions and most state institutions, including the military had been captured to overthrow Mugabe.
"We just didn't believe it, but, clearly given the manner in which the coup was executed there can be no doubt that it was planned a long time ago.
"If you go back and read Moyo's presentation and you read President's Emerson Mnangagwa's rebuttal, you will see that everything Moyo said was correct and if you today read what President Mnangagwa said in rebuttal [it has] turned out to be false.
"So it's not just that Grace said it, the whole of G40 saw it, not actually did they see it, but the army itself didn't hide its determination to intervene in this thing. So it was always out there."
Ncube said Mugabe may have failed to forestall the coup because he strongly believed that the military would never turn against him.
"Personally, I think 37 years in power and being a strong man and your word being literally the word, you tend not to believe anyone would dare," he added.
"I think that it was his undoing. he just thought they wouldn't dare and after the coup, he still didn't think that they would disobey him when he said, 'fine, let's go to the Zanu PF congress and do this', up to the very last minute he still thought that he had authority."
University of Zimbabwe (UZ) political science lecturer Eldred Masunungure said although Mugabe was a shrewd politician, he did not foresee a military takeover.
"I have always referred to him as a Machiavellian political operator, who understands the logic of power and I think power tends to intoxicate its holder," he said.
Moyo wrote, "The quote below from @Welshman_Ncube in the @thestandardzim yesterday speaks for itself. The Coup D'etat wasn't an overnight 15 Nov affair triggered by former First Lady or propelled by the 18 Nov demos. No. It was a long planned & very sinister ZDF power grab waiting to happen!"
Former Industry minister Welshman Ncube said Mugabe and Grace were so naïve to the extent that they failed to read the signs that the security forces were being pushed to the edge.The quote below from @Welshman_Ncube in the @thestandardzim yesterday speaks for itself. The Coup D'etat wasn't an overnight 15 Nov affair triggered by former First Lady or propelled by the 18 Nov demos. No. It was a long planned & very sinister ZDF power grab waiting to happen! pic.twitter.com/59Y9IVQJv0
— Prof Jonathan Moyo (@ProfJNMoyo) December 4, 2017
"The G40 cabal saw the coup coming including Grace, the military themselves always warned, you recall General Chiwenga actually at one point, three or so months ago claimed that the gun always leads politics and Mugabe replied that politics has always led the gun in Zanu PF," the MDC leader said.
"You will also recall Jonathan Moyo's presentation to the politburo about state capture, that all state institutions and most state institutions, including the military had been captured to overthrow Mugabe.
"We just didn't believe it, but, clearly given the manner in which the coup was executed there can be no doubt that it was planned a long time ago.
"If you go back and read Moyo's presentation and you read President's Emerson Mnangagwa's rebuttal, you will see that everything Moyo said was correct and if you today read what President Mnangagwa said in rebuttal [it has] turned out to be false.
Ncube said Mugabe may have failed to forestall the coup because he strongly believed that the military would never turn against him.
"Personally, I think 37 years in power and being a strong man and your word being literally the word, you tend not to believe anyone would dare," he added.
"I think that it was his undoing. he just thought they wouldn't dare and after the coup, he still didn't think that they would disobey him when he said, 'fine, let's go to the Zanu PF congress and do this', up to the very last minute he still thought that he had authority."
University of Zimbabwe (UZ) political science lecturer Eldred Masunungure said although Mugabe was a shrewd politician, he did not foresee a military takeover.
"I have always referred to him as a Machiavellian political operator, who understands the logic of power and I think power tends to intoxicate its holder," he said.
Source - social media
