By Itai Mushekwe/Mary-Kate Kahari
HAMBURG/CAPE TOWN– Former leader, President Robert Mugabe, left an intricate political plan in place that will likely see exiled politician and ex- Zanu PF minister, Saviour Kasukuwere, becoming the country’s president during the next presidential plebiscite, Spotlight Zimbabwe, has exclusively established.
This publication can also put it on record today, that it projects Kasukuwere to win the 2023 presidential polls based on intelligence information at hand, supplied by senior aides close to the current presidium of President Emmerson Mnangagwa.
According to officials inside the Office of the President and Cabinet (OPC), most of who have previously served in Mugabe’s administrations and a top aide of one of the country’s vice presidents, Mugabe’s plan for Kasukuwere’s power ascension to the presidency, is so elaborate that it allegedly involves the South African government, it’s intelligence services, and former presidents Thabo Mbeki and Jacob Zuma.
Former First Lady, Grace Mugabe, has been identified as the kingmaker, who was tasked by her late husband to roll out the secretive plan, when the time is ripe, using a war chest provided by Mugabe himself and the Mugabes business and political associates, to protect their long term interests in Zimbabwe.
Grace has publicly boasted that Mnangagwa and his regime will be “history in three years time”, because he was running the country like a “tuckshop”, telling shocked farmers in Mazowe last year that her son (Kasukuwere) was going to clear the mess, with the farmers she’s embroiled in a land dispute in the area, being eventually evicted.
“The institutions which President Mugabe built during his time in office have not collapsed,” the OPC officials said. “This office for example has many Mugabe functionaries to this day, and let’s not pretend we don’t known them. They remained in office after the 2017 coup for contunuity and the president’s own survival strategy, but he’s going to regret it. The ministry of state security has informed him that Mugabe left an intricate plan in place, for Saviour Kasukuwere to be president, when the next election is called. It’s no longer a secret, and the president has gone bonkers about it.”
Another long serving OPC official, working for the communications office said what has infuriated Mnangagwa the most, is South Africa’s alleged involvement in propping up Kasukuwere’s presidential ambitions.
“Our counter-intelligence in South Africa was informed by their assets, that Pretoria’s intelligence services with elements loyal to former leaders Mbeki and Zuma are involved, causing the president to be infuriated. They have been providing Kasukuwere with intelligence and security, thanks to Mugabe’s prior arrangements because they didn’t want Kasukuwere to be exiled in far away lands. Definitely his security is being facilitated, and he has received private endorsement from the African National Congress (ANC), Julius Malema’s Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) and South African mining companies with interests in Zimbabwe’s platinum, gold and chrome.”
Kasukuwere himself last December, as if to confirm Mugabe’s hitherto unknown plan, told South Africa’s Sunday Times newspaper that he stood by Mugabe, and that former presidents Mbeki and Zuma knew him, without giving any details of their relationship.
“People know that I stood by Mugabe. As former Zanu PF commissar, I’m deeply respected within and beyond Zimbabwe,” said Kasukuwere. ” I interacted with former South African presidents Thabo Mbeki and Jacob Zuma. They know me. I have links with business people with regional interests too.”
The VP aide also revealed that Mugabe’s plan thought to be backed by millions of dollars, also has diplomatic support of unnamed foreign governments and to some extent the military.
“A lot is going on in Zimbabwe right now politically, but the masses are distracted by the pandemic that is there,” he said.
“President Mugabe held a meeting and various telephone conversations with some military emissaries soon after the July 2018 elections, to seek their buy-in in backing Kasukuwere for the presidency in 2023. They actually came to an understanding, and I can tell you that a new transitional leader is first going to come to office before Kasukuwere. This leader will be in power for about two and a half years if everything goes according to plan, then lays the foundation for Kasukuwere. Key foreign governments and Harare’s allies are aware of this arrangement. The current leader is not going to finish his term. Ever asked yourself why the so called Mbeki mediation in Zimbabwe has died a natural death? Why this deliberate decimation of the opposition under the guise of a Supreme Court ruling and lockdown? Someone is making a desperate last throw of the dice, but their journey has ended.”
Spotlight Zimbabwe, has also been told that the military leadership is slowly warming up to Kasukuwere, as the successor to their former boss and ex- Zimbabwe Defence Forces (ZDF) Commander, Vice President, Rtd General, Constantino Chiwenga, who is tipped to replace Mnangagwa.
“Kasukuwere will protect military leaders and ensure that they’re not prosecuted for crimes against humanity, when a new government is ushered in 2023,” said a senior defence ministry officer last night.
Grace, her daugther Bona, and Mugabe’s nephew Patrick Zhuwao, are expected to be rewarded with influential posts and positions in Kasukuwere’s government OPC officials said.
Bona they say might land the post of foreign affairs minister, while Zhuwao is likely to be Kasukuwere’s minister of defence. Kasukuwere and Zhuwao are both living in exile, in South Africa.
E-mail communication seeking comment from both Mbeki and Zuma’s foundations had not been responded to by the time of going to press.
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