'Mutasa despises Mugabe, wants him out'

ACCORDING to the Herald, on two occasions outside Zimbabwe, Didymus Mutasa poured his heart out to three different sources, two of whom who have since deposed affidavits that he despises President Mugabe with a passion and wants him out.

While attending a meeting of former liberation movements hosted by the ANC in South Africa from September 9 to 11, Mutasa - who was in the company of one other person - intimated that "they", meaning the Mujuru faction, were disgruntled that President Mugabe had decided to withdraw his support for Mujuru to succeed him but had not explained to "them" why he had reached that decision, and as a result "they" were very bitter with him.

While attending an exchange meeting with the MPLA in Angola between October 13 and 18, Mutasa - who was in the company of three other people among them Munacho Mutezo - relaxed his guard saying he was bitter that President Mugabe had humiliated him in public at the Youth and Women's League conferences, when he blamed him for the administrative and managerial ineptitude that almost scuttled the two electivke conferences.

"Mutasa said he was very bitter that HE admonished him publicly. He went on to say that he thinks President Mugabe is a dictator who is in the habit of imposing his ideas on people and that this had been going on for too long without being challenged," said a source in one of the affidavits.

Turning to the succession question, Mutasa is said to have vowed that if President Mugabe insisted on blocking the ascendancy of Mai Mujuru, they would take him out.

"This time we are ready to show him at Congress, he knows very well that he has no support, Mnangagwa has no support and the support is with us. So, if he refuses to listen to the majority, we will take him out," Mutasa is quoted as saying.

The source said Mutasa revealed that he had absolute contempt of President Mugabe.

"When Mutasa went to Angola in the company of Deputy Minister Mutezo, they routinely spoke contemptuously about President Mugabe and bragged about the Mujuru plot to oust him," said the other source.

To demonstrate the extent of the contempt Mutasa and his inner circle have for President Mugabe, the source revealed that even Mutasa's aides now have absolutely no respect for the President.

"They now routinely refer to themselves as the incoming team, quite often quipping that after December they will be in the East Wing of Munhumutapa Building," the source said.

Mutasa's nephew, who boasts of being one of his closest confidantes, was also quoted telling a colleague in reference to President Mugabe's two-hour meeting with Mutasa on the sidelines of the 281st Ordinary meeting of the Politburo on October 24 that: "Manje mudhara akatosara uya uya. PaCongress ari kutsvairwa. Mudhara Didymus vakatobata mastructures ese. Mudhara Didymus akati akakandira Bob mapepa eagenda yePolitburo ndobva abuda aakuenda asina kutaura naye. Mudhara Bob ndobva abvunza kuti ko VaMutasa chii? VaMutasa vakati 'mukadzi wako!"

Mutasa is also said to have co-ordinated attempts to frustrate First Lady Amai Mugabe's "Meet the People" rallies on the phone from Angola when he was overheard asking someone on the phone about placards for the anti-First Lady demonstration that was planned by ousted Harare provincial chairman Amos Midzi to coincide with President Mugabe's arrival from Rome where he had gone for a beatification ceremony.

Mutasa wanted to know whether the placards were in place.

And regarding the disturbances at the First Lady's rally in Marondera, Mutasa and Mutezo were heard bragging openly that: "This time we are ready for her. Ari kusangana nazvo zvakamumirira kuMash East. Ndokwazviri kunoperera ikoko."

This corroborates earlier revelations by Mutasa's girlfriend that if President Mugabe continues blocking VP Mujuru's ascendancy he will be shot.

The revelations have led to growing calls that even with the benefit of the doubt; it is untenable for someone harbouring such thoughts to continue working closely with the President firstly as the administrator of the party, and in Government as Presidential Affairs Minister as that gives him an opportunity to carry out his threats.

Analysts have queried out why the security agencies are not doing anything about such revelations though they seem encumbered by the fact that Mutasa's ministerial brief gives him oversight over state security amid reports that the lower ranks were quite concerned that their boss can be used like that against his principal.

"It is a very worrying development," said a source close to developments, "History is replete with the pattern where the most trusted lieutenant became the most dangerous against their principals."

Efforts to get comment from Mutasa and Mutezo were fruitless last night.