Mutsvangwa told the information to Zuma at the height of the bloody coup that ended 37 years of President Robert Mugabe’s iron rule. Mutsvangwa said Grace and the former G40 members were close to Julius Sello Malema and hence they might unite in invading South Africa.
The revelations are contained in a book called Two weeks November written by Douglas Rogers.
Read paragraphs containing the incident below:
Well, consider that Wednesday morning, suspecting a coup has taken place in Zimbabwe, Zuma, in his capacity as SADC chair, dispatches an envoy to Harare to meet with the beleaguered Mugabe. Zuma has phoned Mugabe, who has told him he is fine, but confined to his home. The envoy – South Africa’s Minister of Defence and Military Veterans, Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula is going to see for herself.
Meanwhile, Alpha Condé, the AU Chairman, has also said that what has happened “looks like a coup”.
So Mutsvangwa takes his pitch to Zuma’s aides into overdrive. He appeals to the liberation war blood bond between the ANC, Zimbabwe’s military and war veterans such as himself and Zuma. (Zuma was head of the ANC’s military wing.) Grace and the G40 cabal are not part of that bond, he warns. They did not fight. They have a different ethos. They represent a corrupt “oligarchy capitalism”, which is dangerous to the region. You saw how she beat that poor South African girl Gabriella in that hotel, he tells them. You know of the ties between G40 and Julius Malema, the usurper who is a threat to you here? For good measure he adds that old staple: that Jonathan Moyo, the brains behind G40, is a CIA asset. You don’t want these people in charge of the country and its military to the north of you, do you?
Warming to his theme, he spells out what he says would be the dire consequences for South Africa’s security if Mugabe’s wife were to gain power.
“You maybe have a situation where Grace is in command, Kasukuwere is in command, Jonathan Moyo is in command and then the Zimbabwean army comes to the Limpopo River,” Mutsvangwa warns. “Then your [South African] army will be on the other side of the Limpopo River. This would happen because these people, they do not have the same ethos [as us] and you can’t allow that.”
It sounds absurd – he’s saying there may be a regional war – but he has a way with words, Mutsvangwa. They flow like mercury off his tongue. And he has credentials too. He’s educated, an intellectual, a blue blood, a liberation fighter, an ambassador. He’s persuasive.
Does it work?
To a point. Mostly it buys them time. When Zuma makes the public announcement on Wednesday that he is sending his envoys to Harare to meet with Mugabe, he adds that he has “managed to get the briefing about the situation”, and “given the seriousness, I have taken the decision to send an envoy to contact the leader of the Defence Forces, and to meet with President Mugabe to get a more clear picture.”
It’s the opening Mutsvangwa needs. Indeed, when the envoy lands in Harare she will be met not by government officials loyal to Mugabe, but by military officers. And instead of meeting with Mugabe and Grace privately at the Blue Roof, to hear their sad tale, the meetings will now take place at State House, the President’s official residence, with Chiwenga and the representatives of the military present.
