Morgan Tsvangirai faction of the MDC claims infiltration by the CIO (Central Intelligence Organisation)
There’s an interesting article in the current Financial Gazette titled MDC ‘infiltrated’ . The article focuses on the findings of a commission of inquiry set up by the Morgan Tsvangirai faction of the MDC into the violent attacks against Trudy Steveson and other party officials. These are random extracts - it is well worth reading the article in its entirety:
Zimbabwe’s secret service, the dreaded Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) allegedly took advantage of the schism within the opposition Movement for Democratic Change to perpetrate last July’s brutal attack on Harare North legislator Trudy Stevenson and four other party officials, according to a report compiled by a commission of inquiry set up by one of the feuding factions of the party. In a 123-page report immediately dismissed by critics as a desperate attempt at self-cleansing, a commission of inquiry appointed by Morgan Tsvangirai’s faction of the MDC - which has been accused of orchestrating the assault - found that the opposition party had been heavily infiltrated by the CIO and its agents. The commission, chaired by Advocate Happias Zhou, found that the CIO masterminded the attack on Stevenson, Simangele Manyere, Linos Mushonga, Luxon Sibanda and Tawanda Mudzerema on Sunday, July 2 2006. Zhou’s commission included lawyers Irene Petras of Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights, Kay Ncube of Gill, Godlonton and Gerrans and Kudakwashe Matibiri.
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Reads part of the findings: “All evidence points to the involvement of the CIO in the attack of Mrs Stevenson and her colleagues in so far as they infiltrated the opposition MDC. Mrs Stevenson, herself, categorically stated that in her belief the attack was carried out by or with the involvement of the CIO who she believes have infiltrated the Tsvangirai-led MDC. She (Stevenson) did not seem to have considered the possibility that her own grouping had been infiltrated, although it is a real possibility. The presence of a police motor vehicle soon after the attack is suspicious. The attack was carried out with such skill and efficiency that even though it happened in broad daylight there were no eyewitnesses. Further, it took the police about four or so days before they arrested the first suspects whom they subsequently released. That approach is consistent with an intention to divert attention from the real perpetrators of the brutal act.”
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The Commission’s findings reveal what it described as a “naïve perception” on the part of the leadership of the party in Mabvuku that there were some members of the CIO and senior police officers who were sympathetic to their cause. “Even the member of parliament is not immune to that quixotic notion. As a result, the state agents and senior police officers have inside information on all operations of the party.”
This is not new information. Sokwanele mailed out an article earlier this year (10 February) titled “You will know them by their fruits”: Is Zimbabwe’s CIO involved in the MDC split?. Our article explores the actions of various characters within the MDC, associating well known names with violence, and others with failed mass action. Please read the Financial Gazette article and then read the Sokwanele piece. Towards the end of the article Sokwanele wrote:
We end where we began - with two bitterly divided factions of the MDC. Each needs the other yet at the moment they are divided into two warring camps. Accusations are being traded back and forth on the basis that absolute right resides on the one side of the divide and the other is somehow complicit with ZANU PF. Yet we urge our readers to consider another possibility - namely that, wittingly or unwittingly, both sides have played right into the hands of the CIO. Consider that this is precisely the end result the CIO planned all those years ago when the MDC was first formed, and which the CIO has carefully choreographed through the intervening turbulent years, to be brought to a dramatic denouement just as ZANU PF reaches its lowest ebb in terms of popularity and would otherwise be on the ropes. Consider how convenient the timing to a desperate ZANU PF. Consider how otherwise a strong opposition would be in a position to press home its advantage and demand real and radical change.
We do not seek to arbitrate between the two warring factions but we do wish to sound a clear wake-up call to civic society. It is desperately important that we all cease henceforth from making simplistic judgments between the one MDC faction and the other. It is dismaying to see how otherwise sane and rational people have leapt to accuse people in one or other camp without taking the time to consider the hard evidence, or lack of evidence, supporting such allegations. It is time we considered that our assumptions may not be correct, or not wholly correct. It is time we considered that perhaps the CIO is involved in both sides of this dispute and that neither side commands absolute moral high ground. It is time to consider that perhaps the very people we think are the “good guys” simply because they are on the “right side” and saying the “right things” are anything but that.
And how has Tsvangirai received the findings of this commission of inquiry appointed by his own faction of the MDC?
Tsvangirai said his party would go through “intensive leadership analysis and scrutiny” in light of the findings of the commission. He also said he did not agree with all the findings of the commission. “We disagree with some of the findings because they are based on factually incorrect information. For instance, the commission says we have a security department headed by Nhamo Musekiwa. We do not have such a department. The commission also states that previous attempts to address issues of violence within the party failed to bear fruit. That is incorrect. We took action against certain individuals involved in violence in the past. In June 2005, we expelled more than 30 youths from the party because of their violent activities,” Tsvangirai said.
Did he take full action against ALL those accused? Turning again to the Sokwanele article, I’ve highlighted sections of the text that require critical thinking:
Again in May 2005 there was an outbreak of serious violence within the MDC. A week of sporadic attacks on individuals who worked closely with Welshman Ncube culminated in a violent rampage through Harvest House by the same vigilante group of youths. Again it was the same instigators of the violence and the same plot - to isolate Ncube and undermine his authority within the party, effectively therefore dividing the MDC. When the violence was at its height Isaac Matongo stood outside Harvest House, quietly observing events. He was in fact challenged to intervene and restore order by other observers who thought it his clear duty as party chairman to do so. Matongo however refused to intervene. Matongo escaped sanction in a subsequent enquiry in which he ironically presided over himself.
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Tsvangirai entrusted the re-structuring of his slimmed down version of the MDC [...] to none other than Isaac Matongo. Under his direction elections have been held at district and provincial level.
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The only member of the MDC Management Committee who has not been detained or obviously harassed by the regime since the formation of the MDC in1999 is none other than Isaac Matongo. Tsvangirai and Ncube both had to endure a treason trial and the detention that went with that. Sibanda was detained after the “Final Push”. Chimanikire has been detained on several occasions. Dulini-Ncube lost his eye during his 2001/2002 detention which included a long period of solitary confinement. Virtually every other MDC leader of any significance has been detained or harassed in some way, but never Matongo. For that matter nor has Gandi Mudzingwa. The question must be asked: “why is this?” Do the CIO not know that Matongo is head of the so called DRC?
Do you think that Tsvangirai’s claim that action was taken against all those involved in violence is entirely accurate?
In February 2006 Sokwanele concluded:
It is also high time we ended the personality cult in Zimbabwean politics. It is time we stopped blindly following (even popular and charismatic) personalities who have already shown that they are seriously flawed as leaders. Where there is confusion and uncertainty in the political realm, as here, it falls to civic society to critique those who put themselves forward for positions of leadership. The evidence is before us if only we will take the trouble to sift and weigh it.
That conclusion still holds true today, and is given added gravitas by the findings of the Morgan Tasvangirai faction’s commission of inquiry concluding that the CIO has inflitrated the MDC.
