Mugabe blasts Goche, Bhasikiti

PRESIDENT Mugabe yesterday questioned Labour and Social Welfare Minister Nicholas Goche over reports that he approached hit men to assassinate the Head of State and Government.

The President also told Masvingo Provincial Affairs Minister Kudakwashe Bhasikiti that he was "in the wrong basket", in apparent reference to his factional links.

Further, President Mugabe commented on the main story in yesterday's edition of the Daily News which was headlined "Stop it Jonathan: Mutasa", asking ruling party Secretary for Administration Didymus Mutasa why exactly Information, Media and Broadcasting Services Minister Professor Jonathan Moyo "should be stopped".

Zanu-PF's First Secretary and President made the remarks as he arrived for a Politburo meeting at the party's headquarters in Harare.

In line with his tradition before such meetings, he greeted Politburo members individually in the conference room.

When he got to Minister Goche, he said: "Ko, ndiwe urikunangwa huroyi. (So it's you who is being pinpointed)."

The President then ribbed him with the song: "Ndiwe Muroyi Ndiwe" -  prompting the visibly shaken minister to spring into self-defence mode.

Minister Goche denied the allegations and accused The Herald – which, together with The Sunday Mail reported on the matter – of fabrication.

Turning to Bhasikiti, President Mugabe said: "Why are you in the wrong basket, Mr Bhasikiti?"

A tense Minister Bhasikiti told his boss that he had worked on a thesis whose content proves his commitment to Zanu-PF.

"I am consistent, President," he said.

President Mugabe, however, told him off.

"You should get out of the wrong basket. I hear that you are not consistent. Get into the right basket," he reprimanded.

Commenting on the Daily News article, President Mugabe asked: "Did Mutasa say this? Why should Jonathan be stopped? Is Mutasa himself innocent?"

Minister Goche is accused of plotting to assassinate President Mugabe as part of a plot to install Vice-President Joice Mujuru in his stead.

About two weeks ago, the Politburo heard that Mutasa and former Zanu-PF spokesperson Rugare Gumbo said President Mugabe would be shot if he did not allow VP Mujuru to take over at the December Congress.

Minister Goche, it is said, approached potential hit men in South Africa and Israel to explore the possibility of the assassination.

He allegedly used the cover of official Government business in Switzerland to make the stop-overs and meet the would-be collaborators. And at Wild Ox Club and Mteri Lodge on  7 September in Chiredzi, he told Zimbabwe Sugar Cane Millers Union secretary-general Edmore Hwarare that "real war" was coming in the run-up to the Zanu-PF Congress.

He said guns would be fired and unnamed people would be flushed down the toilet.

"Yamunayo kuno haisi hondo, real war is coming ahead of Congress. Pfuti dzicharira (what you have here is not war, real war is coming, shots will be fired)," he said.

Analysts and war veterans criticised Minister Goche for his backstabbing after President Mugabe appointed him to sensitive Government portfolios even though he had no liberation war credentials.

On the other hand, hundreds of party supporters in Masvingo last week marched against Minister Bhasikiti and Energy and Power Development Minister Dzikamai Mavhaire for colluding to unconstitutionally unseat President Mugabe.

At the time of going to Press this morning the Politburo meeting was still in session.