Plot to topple Mugabe denied

ZANU-PF official Fidelis Fengu, fingered in an alleged plot to topple President Robert Mugabe by forging an alliance between Vice-President Joice Mujuru and ex-Premier Morgan Tsvangirai, yesterday said that he had no capacity to topple the veteran leader and pledged his loyalty to the leader.

Fengu yesterday called for thorough investigations into allegations that he had planned to topple Mugabe.

He said the investigations should be treated with the seriousness they deserved "as the country could not afford to lose Mugabe".

Fengu was alleged to have met with former MDC99 leader and MDC-T returnee, Job Sikhala, where they discussed, among other issues, a plot to unseat Mugabe and forge the alliance.

In the said recording, Sikhala was said to have dominated the discussions, telling the "emissaries" of the possibility of an alliance to topple Mugabe, insinuating that Tsvangirai wanted more information on how best to follow the matter up.

Yesterday, Fengu said he suspected that Sikhala could have been used to entangle him or that it could have been Sikhala himself who was under surveillance.

He confirmed meeting Sikhala, but vehemently denied plotting to unseat Mugabe.

He said the reports linking him to the plot to unseat Mugabe had put his life in danger and should be cleared by way of investigations by all arms of the security services in the country.

He claimed he was summoned to the CID (Law and Order) where he was quizzed over the matter yesterday.

"People are now using this for political fights which I don't want to be involved in. I am an activist and in some way, a thinker and I don't want to be involved in these fights. They are above me. I don't have the capacity to unseat a sitting President," Fengu said.

"What scares me the most is that at one time, I was accused by a [Facebook] faceless character, Baba Jukwa, of plotting the death of the General [Solomon Mujuru] and (the late former Guruve South MP Edward) Chindori-Chininga and now with this reputation created, this could cause a very serious threat."

He said it was Sikhala who approached him.

"It ended as a discussion which did not bear any fruits. Some sections are trying to put two and two together because on Facebook, I am said to be defending Mujuru, Nicholas Goche and Jabulani Sibanda. Why would I work against the President?" Fengu asked rhetorically.

"I worked for a long time on the ground with Sibanda and I know he is loyal to the President. Whatever happened, it is wrong to say that Sibanda is not loyal to the President. I worked with him on the ground campaigning for a long time.

"As for Goche, I worked with him before when he was Minister of Public Service on a number of disability programmes and he told us in many instances that without President Mugabe, our programmes would not be recognised. From there, people started saying I am linked to Goche because of a Facebook reputation that says I am an assassin."

He added: "Yes, I did sympathise with Mai Mujuru, but I don't agree with corruption allegations against her. If she is guilty, then I say no. If she is trying to topple the President, I say no because now the country needs a leader like Gushungo."

Fengu said Zimbabwe was making a mistake of focusing on power struggles instead of the economy that was on a free-fall.

On the Facebook character Baba Jukwa allegations, he said: "At that time, I was aligned to (Environment minister Saviour) Kasukuwere as deputy chairman of the Special Advisory Board and (Local Government minister Ignatius) Chombo had made me councillor in Bulawayo. So I think that time some people could have felt threatened by me because there I was a young person who made strides so somebody felt threatened somewhere and they did that."