Peter Nyoni | It’s Defence Forces Day today, so the right day to speak about an event that changed the nation, The Mugabe Farm Bombing sometimes referred to as Alpha Omega Dairy Bombing.
The Zimbabwe army’s alleged bombing of the Gushungo Farm, which belongs to the then first family (Former President Robert Mugabe’s family), was a well-planned military move- emerging details have revealed.
Although that could not be categorically established during court proceedings, the emerging details reveal it was a planned military operation with Operation Restore Legacy a.k.a COUP as the intended goal. This could be clearly seen from how determined the military wanted the incident to be covered in the press.
Just after the alleged incident, two soldiers came to the Media Centre in Harare with a press statement of the event and asked if there were any journalists among the people who were in the room. The two army personnel then gave two of the journalists present, the press statement and requested them to write the story about the matter.
Sources, who were there, even alleged that the said journalist was given $150.00 by the military guys as a kickback to cover the story. The story was indeed written and posted on the Media Centre’s website, and the other on a local news site the Firstner News Network.
The following day two members from Mugabe’s dreaded Central Intelligence Organisation stormed the Media Centre and ordered the two journalists as well as Ernest Mudzengi, the Media Centre director to immediately pull out the stories from his organisation’s website, threatening to deal with them if they failed to comply.
The stories were pulled out, and the two journalists who covered the story were later picked up by the police from the Law and Order Section for questioning.
They were intimidated and harassed by the police at the Harare Central Police Station. The police mocked them saying it was the two scribes who had authored, as they had never seen a soldier writing a well-articulated press statement.
Back to the point, the fact that the military desperately wanted the story of the Gushungo Farm bombing to be covered in the press, should tell us something about who was behind this whole incident. It wasn’t, merely an act by two mischievous soldiers, but a well-planned move executed with orders being given from the high command in the military.
It was a warning shot, to Mugabe, that the army was slowly getting worried with the succession battles raging in the ruling party. More so Mugabe remained adamant that he was not going to anoint anyone to take over from him. The army had always wanted Mnangagwa to take over the reins from Mugabe, but the old pilot had other ideas, he apparently wanted his wife Grace to succeed him.
When asked by Harare Magistrate Hoseah Mujaya in February 2016 why he wanted to bomb Mugabe’s farm, Owen Kuchata, who was arrested with accomplices Borman Ngwenya, a soldier attached to military intelligence, Solomon Makumbe a Zimbabwe National Army corporal and ex-soldier Silas Pfupa said:
“Since I am representing the rights of other Zimbabweans, I had the right to bomb his private property because Robert Mugabe is causing disorder and problems in this country.”
The same message was repeated on November 14, 2017, the night a coup was staged by Zimbabwe military “We are only targeting criminals around him(Mugabe) who are committing crimes that are causing social and economic suffering in the country in order to bring them to justice,” said SB Moyo on the night Mugabe’s rule ended.
Peter Nyoni is a Zimbabwean businessman, he travels frequently between Harare and South Africa. He writes in his own capacity.
