Pressure mounts on Didymus Mutasa to resign

PRESIDENTIAL Affairs Minister Didymus Mutasa faced growing calls for his sacking yesterday after revelations that he told a girlfriend that President Robert Mugabe would be "shot" if he blocked Vice President Joice Mujuru's path to the presidency.

Legal experts and political analysts said Mutasa's moral blameworthiness was very high as his ministerial portfolio has oversight on State security.

Police, the analysts said, should also be seized with the matter because Mutasa and suspended party spokesperson Rugare Gumbo wanted to topple a constitutionally-elected President using unconstitutional means.

Mutasa's alleged plot to assassinate President Mugabe emerged in last Thursday's Politburo meeting where party members heard that last month, the Zanu-PF secretary for administration boasted to one of his lovers that "if President Mugabe blocks the ascendancy of Vice President Mujuru to the Presidency at the Zanu-PF Congress, then he'll be shot."

The lover immediately reported Mutasa, who is a close ally of VP Mujuru, to the authorities.

Another VP Mujuru ally, suspended party spokesperson Rugare Gumbo was recorded making assassination threats: "If Mugabe continues pushing Mujuru out, we will remove him in the same way they dealt with (Laurent) Kabila."

DRC President Laurent Kabila was killed by a member of his security team in January 2001.

The analysts said Mutasa was literally getting away with murder given that while he had said "what", Gumbo who had said "how" had been given the boot; and while ousted Manicaland provincial chair John Mvundura had attended the abortive burial function where former war veterans chairman Jabulani Sibanda had made scandalous allegations against the First Family including threatening to march to State House with Mutasa, it was Mvundura who had received a written reprimand.

Legal and political experts said yesterday that it was "hazardous" for President Mugabe to work closely with someone scheming his downfall as well as leaving such a sensitive ministerial post, that has oversight on State security, in the hands of a person with a devious agenda.

Newly elected Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans Association chairperson Christopher Mutsvangwa said being in charge of State security, Mutasa was not required to brook any actions of treachery.

As such, Mutsvangwa said Mutasa should face the boot forthwith or resign voluntarily.

"His assignment is one of complete loyalty to the principal as it is about VIP protection," he said.

"It brooks not even appearance of mistrust, let alone actions of treachery. He wanted the President for their regime change lunch, but now we move early and quick for breakfast."

Investigations have revealed that another Cabinet minister from Mashonaland Central, closely linked to VP Mujuru, made contingencies for such a scenario of assassinating President Mugabe during recent meetings with potential hitmen in South Africa and Israel.

There are two Cabinet ministers from Mashonaland Central, Cdes Saviour Kasukuwere and Nicholas Goche. Efforts to get comments from them were unsuccessful at the time of going to press.

Political analyst Alexander Rusero said the allegations levelled against Mutasa and Gumbo deserved police investigation and prosecution.

For the meantime, he said, the pair was not fit to hold any post in government and the party, adding that the party should get rid of all "political chaff" at the party's elective congress early next month.

Zanu-PF is set to hold its 6th National People's Congress from December 2 to 7 in Harare.

"This issue must not be taken at face value because the security of the country and that of the ruling party is being undermined," Rusero said.

"The President should mop up all political chaff because politics isn't like a church where people are always forgiven for their sins, it's all about justice. He (President Mugabe) has been patient enough waiting for what people will say, but faced with such a scenario the solution is to get rid of tricksters. Those being implicated should also leave office."

Rusero said expelling the culprits would show that Zanu-PF was bigger than individuals.

"It's the turning point of Zanu-PF history where the purported godfathers and kingmakers are falling by the wayside," he said. "Going forward, it means the party should not invest in personalities but competency and transparency.

"The ball is in President Mugabe's court and he should simply fire those who no longer have the interests of the party at heart."

Mutasa said yesterday: "In your view do you think it's true? If I comment what will you do? Anyway, I no longer want to talk to journalists."

He handed his mobile to an individual believed to be his son, who thundered down the phone: "Listen, whoever you're, whether you're a journalist or what, you've no right to force my father to speak to you." Gumbo said: "I'll watch the battle from the terraces."

Prominent Harare lawyer Terrence Hussein said no one was above the law and the two, Mutasa and Gumbo, should be investigated.

"It's not good to leave things as they are," he said. "It's imperative that full facts are established quickly for action to be taken. Either the law takes its course or they get cleared.

"Police agents can be used in this case because, if it's true, this is a treasonous charge as they would have wanted to topple a constitutionally elected President using unconstitutional means."

Former Attorney General Sobusa Gula-Ndebele said investigations were needed to establish if there was a case.

Another lawyer Jonathan Samukange said treasonous charges should be pressed against anyone who wants to remove the President unlawfully. "Using force or violence to remove the State or the Head of State is a treasonous act and anyone found doing that should be charged," he said.

Cdes Mutasa and Gumbo have been the most vocal and active in propping up VP Mujuru's ambition to take over the Presidency just one year after President Mugabe secured more than 61 percent of the Presidential vote.