‘WikiLeaks mole’ Satuku dies

RETIRED army major-general Fidelis Satuku has died, 10 years after he was forced out of the security sector for allegedly bad-mouthing then Zimbabwe Defence Forces commander Constantino Chiwenga at a private meeting with former United States (US) ambassador Charles Ray.

A veteran of the liberation struggle, Satuku died yesterday at a military hospital in Mutare aged 64.

Details of his secret meeting with the former US ambassador were exposed by WikiLeaks in a series of leaked diplomatic cables, which also implicated then brigadier-general Herbert Chingono.

According to the leaked cables, the two army bosses were quoted describing Chiwenga as a “political general” with “little practical military experience or expertise”.

“Ambassador met privately on January 5 (2010) with Brigadier-General Herbert Chingono, Inspector General for the ZNA [Zimbabwe National Army], and on January 6 with Major-General Fidelis Satuku, director-general for policy and personnel, ZDF [Zimbabwe Defence Forces]. These two serving military officers took a grave personal risk meeting with us, and their identities should be strictly protected,” part of the leaked cable read.

WikiLeaks is an international nonprofit organisation that publishes news leaks and classified media provided by anonymous sources. Its website, initiated in 2006 in Iceland by the organisation Sunshine Press, stated in 2015 that it had released online 10 million documents in its first 10 years.