Mutsvangwa fumes over son’s arrest
Zanu PF spokesperson Christopher Mutsvangwa yesterday railed against his political opponents in the ruling Zanu PF party saying they were behind the arrest of his son for alleged illegal foreign currency trading and for possessing Starlink equipment.
Mutsvangwa said his opponents were power hungry mafikizolos (newcomers), who joined the liberation struggle late from Tanzania, and were after President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s post.
His son Neville is spending the weekend behind bars following his dramatic arrest in Harare last Wednesday.
Neville is also facing charges of contravening the Telecommunications Act after a Starlink router was recovered at his house.
Zimbabwe is yet to licence Starlink. In an exclusive interview with The Standard, Mutsvangwa said his opponents were behind Neville’s arrest as a way of persecuting him for his close relations with Mnangagwa.
Mutsvangwa described his enemies as “ambitious and think they are anointed to be powerful” charging that they had captured the judiciary to lay malicious charges against his son.
He said he was not going to beg his adversaries to intervene in Neville’s case.
“They are abusing the state. There are two issues of abuse,” Mutsvangwa said.
“One is the abuse of the stationary of the party (to create fake statements) and the other one is the abuse of the state apparatus, including the judiciary.”
A fake press statement purported to have been issued by Mutsvangwa expressing his disgruntlement over the arrest of Neville, and threatening to expose Mnangagwa's sons over various malpractices circulated on social media last week.
“They are trying to abuse the judiciary system, hoping that I can have an attitude against the state,” Mutsvangwa said.
“The owner of the state is the president. But these are forces which are in between — the third force.”
He exonerated Mnangagwa on allegations that he was behind his son’s arrest.
“I have established beyond any doubt that the persecution does not emanate from the head of state,” he said.
“It will never emanate from the head of state.
“So it is somebody else who thinks that he is wearing the shoes of the head of state to manipulate the relationship between me and the president.
“You know, the gate to power according to the constitution is through an election, not through games and shenanigans and subterfuge.”
Mutsvangwa refused to name the people behind his alleged persecution.
“And I know the people who are playing these games, but I won’t name them,” he said.
“I don’t answer to ambitious individuals and persecuting my son will never make me change allegiances.
“I don’t have any allegiances.
“I have been in this game for a long time.
“It’s a futile attempt so that the president has an attitude about me to create a gap between me and the president.
“I have been with the president since I was 22 years old.”
The Zanu PF spokesperson said his opponents feared he could topple them from their top posts.
“There are futile, yet spirited efforts to manipulate and alienate me from the president of the Republic from latter day proximity advisors of all hue and stripe,” he said.
“For sober record, I was one of his very first and pioneer recruits to his office of special assistant to the president of Zanu PF.
“He arranged my professional training in Belgrade then Yugoslavia together with Cde Chaunoita, the just buried national hero.
“It's an impossibly long shot for the power-ambitious to ever think they can drive a wedge into such a long, strong and solid revolutionary acquaintance between me and the president.
“Persecuting my son as a carrot and stick to that nefarious enterprise will never yield the much craved outcome.”
Mutsvangwa said he was a veteran of the liberation struggle having been in the trenches before his opponents joined him in the trenches.
“Remember the war was in Mozambique, not in Tanzania,” he said.
“Some of them came from Tanzania in 1978, a year before we won, a year before victory.
“I have been in the war in Mozambique since 1975, and the president came back in 1977.
“And I started working in 1978, well before all the other people from Tanzania came to Mozambique.
“I was already working with the president.”
Mutsvangwa added: “I think that proximity to him, my proximity to the president, they think that post-independence proximity to the president, they can influence him against me or me against him.”
In February, Mutsvangwa was sacked as War Veterans minister.
The presidency did not say why Mutsvangwa, previously sacked as presidential advisor before landing a ministerial position, had been removed.
In the interview with The Standard, he boasted about his track record as Zimbabwe’s ambassador to China during the Robert Mugabe era.
“I was in China, look at the tobacco sector — the look east policy politics,” Mutsvangwa said.
“That is what revived the tobacco industry, the second largest foreign currency earner in this country.”
He also claimed credit for the Zimbabwe Gold (ZiG) currency, which was introduced last month to replace the moribund local currency.
Authorities have said the ZiG is backed by gold and foreign currency reserves as well as other minerals
“I started it (ZiG) with the war veterans in Masvingo when we pushed for legalisation of SMES gold in Mugabe’s Cabinet,” he said.
“ZiG is backed by gold and without the SME gold we would not have any ZiG.
“Since 2016 when the SMEs started they had 3 tonnes now they have 50 tonnes.”