CIO boss in trouble over Mugabe fall

HARARE – Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) boss Happyton Bonyongwe is at the centre of a probe into President Robert Mugabe’s fall at the airport last week.

Mugabe tumbled to his knees as he stepped off a small staircase after addressing party supporters and government officials at the Harare International Airport on his return from Addis Ababa last week.

His aides failed to break the fall and pictures taken by the media showed several of them watching helplessly as Mugabe fell in front of Bonyongwe, who feebly reached out to lift him up. Army commander, General Constantine Chiwenga, was beside him.

Intelligence sources told The Zimbabwean that a fuming Emmerson Mnangagwa, who was the acting president in Mugabe’s absence, took Bonyongwe aside after the president had been whisked away and ordered him to write a report.

“ED (Mnangagwa) summoned Bonyongwe and accused him of sleeping on duty as HE (His Excellency) was embarrassed by the fall. He was not amused that Bonyongwe’s charges failed to prevent the president from falling,” said a middle ranking CIO operative.

Hump in the carpet

Mnangagwa reportedly asked Bonyongwe in the presence of other service chiefs if he was part of a plot to embarrass Mugabe. After that, the vice president is said to have talked to his counterpart, Phelekezela Mphoko, complaining that members of a Zanu (PF) faction led by Joice Mujuru were sabotaging the presidium.

Mnangagwa successfully lobbied for the removal of Mujuru as Mugabe’s deputy at the Zanu (PF) congress last year and emerged as her replacement. Bonyongwe has for a long time been linked to the Mujuru camp and there were unconfirmed reports late last year that he would be removed as CIO director general.

“Mnangagwa seems to be convinced that Bonyongwe relaxed the close security unit knowing well that the president could lose his balance, given that he has fallen before,” said the source.

“The president’s fall has taken a factional turn and it seems heads will roll soon.”

The source confirmed that some bodyguards had already been struck off the list of close security agents and made to write reports of what transpired at the airport and what individual action they took to save the president.

He said they had also been compelled to explain how images of the falling Mugabe managed to get to the media despite a strategy to ensure photographs were deleted.

“It seems many of them, some of who were still new at close security, will either be removed permanently from presidential assignments or demoted. In my opinion, some of them were not alert enough and they must be disciplined – but there is fear that the bosses will use the others as sacrificial lambs,” added the source.

He said officers in the presidential protocol team and management at the Civil Aviation Authority of Zimbabwe (CAAZ) had also been asked to write reports, following claims from information minister Jonathan Moyo that Mugabe fell because of a hump in the red carpet.

George Charamba, the presidential spokesperson, has dismissed reports of probes after the fall. The Zimbabwean