HARARE: Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa says President Robert Mugabe has no reason to ever fear a coup against him — blaming Higher Education minister Jonathan Moyo for raising false alarms in his alleged desperate bid to destabilise the country’s security sector.
Well-placed sources told journalists yesterday that this was contained in Mnangagwa’s combative dossier against Moyo which he presented to a tense Zanu PF politburo on Wednesday — after the Tsholotsho North legislator had earlier alleged that the embattled VP had captured key State institutions, including the military, in his bid to succeed Mugabe.
It also emerged yesterday that Mnangagwa had reminded Mugabe in the explosive gathering on Wednesday that when most Zanu PF officials had accepted the nonagenarian’s stunning defeat to opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai in the hotly-disputed 2008 polls, it was him and the country’s securocrats who had rescued him and the ruling party from being dethroned from power.
“ED described the relationship between Zanu PF and the army as ‘unbreakable’, Mnangagwa — revealing that Moyo had falsely stated in a July 2016 letter to …Mugabe that a coup was being mooted against him by army generals.
“Your Excellency, on July 5, 2016, and while you were out of the country … Moyo concocted a story that his cousin, Major Nkosana Moyo, who is with the Presidential Guard, informed you of a planned coup by the army to install me as the country’s new leader.
“Moyo specifically cited General Sanyatwe as the brains behind the coup d’état. The sad thing is that … Moyo wants to destabilise the army that is central to the protection of the nation. It is a fact that he wrote a letter to that effect, peddling these allegations.
“What has changed since then? Why should people believe your coup claims now when you (Moyo) have lied about that before? It is a fact that Moyo is bragging that he has managed to instil fear in the First Family over the alleged coup issue,” Mnangagwa is reported saying by the sources.
A fortnight ago when powerful First Lady Grace Mugabe had a public go at Mnangagwa, she accused some army elements of plotting a coup — in what analysts said betrayed the deep mistrust within the warring Zanu PF and lingering uneasiness about the loyalty of military commanders within the G40 faction.
Our sources said Mnangagwa proceeded on Wednesday to claim that Moyo’s plan was allegedly to ensure that people with liberation war credentials in the security sector were all flushed out and replaced with G40 toadies.
“Their plan has revolved around systematically targeting the war veteran element within and without the military establishment, since they are aware of the unbreakable bond between the Defence Forces and Zanu PF.
“The very people who stood by the president since the liberation war days are the ones now being accused of orchestrating a coup d’état against the very person they have loyally served for over four decades.
“Your Excellency and fellow politburo members, this is the same Moyo who was attacking the generals and the rest of the security sector for their role, including campaigning for the 27 June 2008 presidential election run-off,” Mnangagwa is reported saying.
In the disputed polls of that year, Tsvangirai was said to have beaten Mugabe hands down by sacked former Zanu PF bigwigs.
However, the results of the elections were withheld for six long weeks by stunned authorities, amid widespread allegations of ballot tampering and fraud which were later revealed by the former ruling party bigwigs.
