'Tsvangirai wanted Chanakira to be Finance Minister'

PRIME Minister Morgan Tsvangirai assembled a cabinet team that included banker Nigel Chanakira as finance minister in anticipation of an electoral victory in the run-up to the disputed presidential poll of 2002, the Financial Gazette reported.

According to revelations contained in a United States diplomatic cable dated February 5, 2002, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC-T) leader also put together a secret four-member team led by businessman, Ian Makone, now a permanent secretary in the Prime Minister's Office, to draw up an action plan for the first 100 days in office.

Prominent academic, Brian Raftopoulos; Renee Lowenson, then a consultant for the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions and Charles Hove, a former senior official in the Ministry of Finance, were the other members of the team that was tasked with identifying individuals to serve in important positions.

The cable; quoting a meeting between Tsvangirai's advisor, Gandhi Mudzingwa and a US embassy official, alleged that the MDC-T leader also planned to name the late ZANU-PF stalwart, Eddison Zvobgo as the Speaker of the House of Assembly.

Around the time the conversation was held, the MDC-T dropped an electoral challenge following Zvobgo's victory in Masvingo South, but pressed ahead with hearings in 27 other ZANU-PF constituencies, for unexplained reasons.

Welshman Ncube, who was the secretary general of the party before it split in October 2006 over the question of whether or not to participate in Senatorial polls, was seconded to the Home Affairs portfolio.

"Asked whether MDC president Tsvangirai has identified individuals to serve in his cabinet, Mudzingwa said several decisions had been made. Nigel Chanakira, chairperson of Kingdom Financial Holdings ' Zimbabwe's most successful indigenous Merchant Bank ' had agreed to accept the finance portfolio. MDC MP and human rights lawyer, David Coltart would be appointed justice minister, with one important proviso," reads part of the cable.

"Coltart has done a lot of preparatory work for the establishment of a Truth and Justice Commission and was determined to seek retribution against those responsible for Zimbabwe's current plight. Tsvangirai was concerned that having a white Zimbabwean leading this effort would send all the wrong signals, so he has decided to place the Truth and Justice Commission under Parliament's authority."

In another separate cable dated August 29, 2005 Coltart, Chanakira and exiled businessman, Strive Masiyiwa were said to be planning to travel to Washington for discussions with then US president, George W Bush on issues affecting Zimbabwe.

It is not clear whether the meeting later materialised.

"Coltart said he and two colleagues were seeking a Washington meeting with President Bush in October to discuss Zimbabwe. The two colleagues were Econet principal owner and former Daily News publisher, Strive Masiyiwa and Kingdom Bank owner, Nigel Chanakira. The three shared a common religious faith, and were seeking the meeting through their senior religious contacts in the US rather than through official channels," reads the second cable.

"The group might also seek meetings on Capitol Hill, especially if they failed to secure a meeting with the President. Coltart said the trip was intended to be low-key with no media profile and that he would not be meeting the President in his guise as an MDC politician but rather as a fellow believer."