Police Commissioner, Prisons Chief & CIO Director General Survive Mugabe Purge-For Now!

In a move widely viewed as an ultimate U-turn by the traditionally hardline dictator,  Mugabe’s   who was previously bent on retiring at least three of his security generals, has now decided to shelve that decision as a balancing act for his precarious political position in as his hold on power continues to wane against a discontented electorate, factionalism in Zanu PF and a dead  economy.

In a face saving move, the dictator has instead,  renewed the  generals contracts by another year of service. The purge was aimed at  police commissioner Augustine Chihuri, prison service chief Paradzai Zimondi and Central Intelligence Organisation director general Happyton Bonyongwe, but the sudden reversal is clearly calculated to maintain a firm grip on power by not destabilising his centre of power in Zimbabwe’s securocrats.

These three securocrats, are generally considered to be aligned to the ousted Zanu-PF faction led by dismissed former Zimbabwe’s  Joice Mujuru which was brutally cut down by a furious Grace Mugabe who wreaked havoc and terror across the fragile Zanu PF at the annual Zanu PF congress in December 2014.
Mujuru and  her fellow dismissed Zanu PF allies were summarily dismissed in the period stretching from the  runupto, during and post the  Zanu-PF December  2014 congress all  allegedly for plotting to topple the 91-year old despot Robert Mugabe who has been in power for 35 years.
To the discerning eye, this last minute about turn by Mugabe is a result of timely advice from his close strategists who would have clearly warned Mugabe of the threat posed to his own future, both with respect to personal safety and tenure as president of the Republic of Zimbabwe, by  removing  Zimbabwe Republic Police Chief (ZRP), Police Commissioner General Augustine Chihuri and Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) Director General Bonyongwe.
None more than such well  individuals who have been central to upholding the dictatorship all along, would know as much dark secrets about Mugabe and how best to bring down his regime, hence the strategic reversal  to avoid  compromising  his own shaky  presidential position.
“Armed with their secrets,  in a climate of 80 percent of Zimbabwe’s working population out of employment, the generals would have the capacity to further destabilise Zanu-PF and even bolster People First.

The power of the information that these generals hold is enough leverage against Mugabe is such that they can use it to shape anew political dispensation in the nation if they were let loose with it. They can easily bolster the support base for the former VP Joice Mujuru’s  People First movement  or Morgan Tsvangirai’s movement for democratic Change (MDC T).

However even more worrying for the now suspicious and sleepless Zanu PF leader is that they could easily assassinate him or engineer the move by third parties. It is now too dangerous, a time for anyone of any importance in Zanu PF to sleep with both eyes closed. Typically, in an ideal world his best move would be to simply apply the first rule of despot politics ,..’A good General Is a dead one!’ but its too late for such obvious drastic measures considering the obvious repercussions of such a suicidal decision by the president. By Sibusiso Ngwenya. see more at www.newzimbabwevision.com.