HARARE: His wife is a beauty queen, his troops unseated Zimbabwean leader Robert Mugabe, and his motorcade is fit for a president.
General Constantino Chiwenga, head of the armed forces until earlier this month, is on a roll.
On Dec 15 his 10-vehicle convoy, complete with soldiers toting AK-47 assault rifles, roared into a congress of the ruling ZANU-PF party.
It was one of several displays of power by Zimbabwe’s generals since they helped oust Mugabe, the southern African nation’s ruler of 37 years, on Nov 21. Ostensibly Chiwenga, 61, is subordinate to the veteran politician who replaced Mugabe as president: Emmerson Mnangagwa, nicknamed the Crocodile.
Mnangagwa, 75, was sworn in on Nov 24 and promised to hold elections in 2018.But since Mugabe was deposed and Mnangagwa installed, moves by senior military men have suggested the president is the junior partner in an army-dominated administration.
Following a month of speculation about his role in Mnangagwa’s government, Chiwenga was named vice president on Dec 23. He was also appointed defence minister on Dec 29, so retaining control of the military.
That perception of Mnangagwa’s disempowerment is buttressed by reports seen by Reuters from inside Zimbabwe’s Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO).
"The generals have tasted power and they are not willing to let it go," reads one intelligence report, dated Nov 29. "They want to enjoy the fruits of removing Mugabe from power."
Another report, from Nov 22, described the backroom negotiations to form a post-Mugabe government. "Chiwenga is the one going to have final say as power is in his hands. He is now the most feared man in government and party as well as the whole country," it said.
The documents reviewed by Reuters are the latest installments in a series of hundreds of intelligence reports the news agency has seen from inside the CIO dating back to 2009. Reuters has not been able to determine their intended audience, but the documents cover every aspect of Zimbabwean political life over the last eight years - Mugabe, the top echelons of his ZANU-PF party, the military, opposition parties and the white business community.
In the dying days of Mugabe’s regime, the CIO the principal organ of Mugabe’s police state split into two factions.
One served the interests of Mnangagwa, the other those of his main political rival, Grace Mugabe, the president’s 52-year-old wife, according to several Zimbabwean intelligence sources.
Much of the content of the CIO reports has turned out to be correct, including an intelligence finding reported by Reuters in September that the army was backing then vice-president Mnangagwa to take over from Mugabe.
from The News International - World http://ift.tt/2DDJCxf
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