OPPOSITION MDC leader Nelson Chamisa wants President
Emmerson Mnangagwa to rescind his decision to appoint Zanu PF Gokwe-Kana MP
Owen Ncube as Minister of State for National Security.
In a statement, the MDC leader argued that Ncube, known as
“Mudha” in political circles, was a vigilante group leader who should be
nowhere near the country’s security services sector.
According to the opposition party, the absence of a law
operationalising the use of the intelligence services in Zimbabwe is a cause
for great angst.
“Only the Central Intelligence office has no Act of
Parliament guiding their operations. Excitable individuals can manipulate the
loose arrangement. This is worsened by the recent appointment of Owen ‘Mudha’
Ncube as the head of the ministry responsible for the intelligence services.
The appointment is a manifestation of a failure, reluctance and disinterest of
a total break from the past by the current government,” the statement said.
“In this day and age, the authorities cannot be rewarding
individuals who must be holed in solitary confinement under the roof of a
supermax facility through executive appointments. Put differently, the
atrocities committed by this shady individual only warrant imprisonment in the
State’s biggest penitentiary, Chikurubi Maximum Security Prison. Mnangagwa in
his wisdom or lack thereof decided to elevate a mobster and formalise a
vigilante by making him one of the most powerful occupants of the State.”
As State Security minister, Ncube is in charge of the
dreaded Central Intelligence Organisation.
However, Media, Information and Broadcasting services
deputy minister Energy Mutodi leapt to Ncube’s defence.
“The President has appointed the right men and women to
specific Cabinet tasks that he chose. The choices that he made are in tandem
with the work that needs to be done at present and in future,” Mutodi said.
“Giving anyone appointed by the President a stereotypically
pejorative image like ‘dark past’ is mischievous of the opposition. The
opposition must not think they are angels in this country. Each and every one
of them has a past that no one has dared to look into.”
The MDC claimed Ncube has in the past been involved in a
number of public brawls, which makes him unfit for public office.
“We also make the point that security services must be used
to protect the territorial integrity of the land and maintain law and order.
The appointment of Mudha is a clear personalisation of the intelligence
services to serve a narrow personal agenda of power retention through
repression, torture of civilians, abductions and forced disappearances,”
Chamisa’s party argued.
Mnangagwa has also been urged to establish an independent
complaints mechanism against members of the security services as provided for
in Section 210 of the Constitution.
To this, Mutodi said the Constitution provide for the
establishment of the Intelligence Service: “Any amendment to the configuration,
roles and function of the Intelligence Service needs to pass through a
parliamentary process that the opposition MPs are fully aware of. If any
lawmaker thinks there is need for any adjustments, we are a democratic country
and let them introduce that in Parliament, not in newspapers.”
Ncube was not immediately available for comment as his
mobile was unreachable. Newsday
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