FORMER president Robert Mugabe, who died in Singapore last
Friday, offered Vice-President Constantino Chiwenga to take over from him at
the height of the coup, the Zimbabwe Independent can reveal.
In an interview with the Independent at his house in March
2018, Mugabe revealed that 48 hours after the military had taken over key
institutions, he offered Chiwenga to take over power, as he believed he was the
power broker behind President Emmerson Mnangagwa.
However, Chiwenga refused, fearing for his security, as he
thought accepting the offer would put him in the crosshairs of military
commanders who would view
the act as betrayal. Mugabe said he knew Chiwenga was the
kingmaker, while Mnangagwa was the political front.
However, prior to the coup, Mugabe had preferred the Sydney
Sekeramayi, who was then Defence minister.
In the interview with the Independent, Mugabe revealed that
he sent former Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe governor Gideon Gono to speak to the
army on November 17,
2017.
Initially, Roman Catholic priest father Fidelis Mukonori
had been the emissary between the army and the Mugabe family, but on this
specific mission he sent
Gono.
Gono’s mission was to understand the military’s issues and
grievances.
The reason why Mugabe was offering power is that he had
been made to understand that there was a planned march on his Blue Roof
residence, which was to be on
November 18, where a mob would be allowed to lynch him
Gadaffi-style.
Even at the 11th hour, Mugabe was totally opposed to
Mnangagwa taking over from him, and this is despite their long history
together. During negotiations
between Mugabe and the military at State House, Mugabe kept
on flagging to Chiwenga to take over from him. That softened Chiwenga,
resulting in the former
commander of defence forces (CDF) being convinced (around
the time of the “Asante Sana” speech), that Mugabe should at least stay on
until Zanu PF’s December
congress or, better still, until the end of his five-year
term.
Mugabe had tried to use the same strategy to lure Mnangagwa
back from short exile in South Africa so that they could have a discussion on
the coup and
succession. Mukonori said in one of the interviews that the
two leaders had spoken on the phone for about 10 to 15 minutes during the
negotiations between the
military and Mugabe.
Mugabe, after having established contact with the army,
some long hours after it had launched its operation, entertained the thought
that the situation could
still be managed, particularly after the intervention of
South Africa, which sent a delegation that included then State Security
minister Bongani Bongo and
Defence minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula.
He thought the tide could be reversed.
However, sources close to him say that after Mugabe
attended the Zimbabwe Open University graduation ceremony, he came back to his
home completely changed
after realising that the army had virtually taken over.
This was because during the graduation ceremony, he had an opportunity, for the
first time after the
military takeover, to be briefed by senior members of the
Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO), who told him that, clearly, the coup
was complete and that,
after all, some intelligence officers had been killed.
“After the graduation ceremony, they gave him a list with
nine names of people whom they alleged had been killed. That shocked him and,
when he got home, he
started thinking differently from the path of negotiation,”
a source said.
“He then reached out to several heads of state in the
region to intervene, but they refused.”
The South Africans, who were key to the process — not least
because of their economic and regional power, but also because the then
president Jacob Zuma was
the Sadc chairperson — refused to intervene, but made it
clear that if the army had invaded Mugabe’s house, as they were threatening
repeatedly in the background, South African troops were going to be in Harare
within minutes.
“Mugabe also tried to reach Vladimir Putin, through former
vice-president Phelekezela Mphoko. He asked Mphoko to call Putin to come and
quash the coup. That
did not work because African leaders did not prefer that
route,” another source said.
After the May 2017 “Mexico Declaration”, which heightened
Mugabe’s succession war within the splintered Zanu PF, the G40 faction hastily
formed a special
committee led by the then party’s political commissar
Saviour Kasukuwere to introduce Sekeramayi across the country’s 10 provinces as
the veteran leader’s
preferred heir apparent.
Mugabe’s project to install Sekeramayi as his successor
failed due to an array of reasons: his lack of gravitas, weak support from the
deposed veteran leader,
as well as from the Zanu PF commissariat and critical party
structures. Insiders told the Independent in May 2018 that Sekeramayi proved to
be a reluctant and
weak candidate, as he appeared rather too timid to provide
leadership to the G40 faction which had coalesced around Mugabe and his wife
Grace at the zenith of
the Zanu PF succession battle.
Prior to Sekeramayi, Mugabe had wanted his former
Vice-President Joice Mujuru to take over from him after the 2004 Zanu PF
congress. Zimbabwe Independent
0 comments:
Post a Comment