By Lance Guma
A suspected member of the Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO), who also holds a position in ZANU PF, is allegedly recruiting youths in the Midlands Province and using them to threaten anyone supporting the MDC with death.
A report by the Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition claims Owen Ncube (also known as Mudha Mugabe) has been steadily re-activating the ZANU PF terror machinery in the area. He has been recruiting youths from the Zhombe and Salagushle resettlement area in Kwekwe and Kana village in Gokwe.
Ncube, who is also the ZANU PF Provincial Secretary for Security in the Midlands, is said to be forcing villagers to attend party rallies against their will. At these rallies the youth militia are recording the names and identification numbers of everyone present as well as taking the names of those who do not attend.
It’s not the first time Ncube has been terrorising people. It’s reported in July this year he disrupted the Joint Operations Monitoring Implementing Committee (JOMIC) peace rally held at Mbizo 4 Shopping Centre in Kwekwe. Local MP Settlement Chikwinya confirmed the incident.
A month before this Ncube “terrorized gold panners at the Sherwood mining area, forcing them to attend ZANU PF meetings every week or face eviction from the mine.” The crisis report also says Ncube was part of a group of senior ZANU PF officials who were sucked into an illegal gold mining scam in Kwekwe.
Those implicated in the gold scam were retired Air Vice Marshal Henry Muchena, ZANU PF Buhera North MP William Mutomba, former labour minister July Moyo, former Zhombe MP Daniel McKenzie Ncube, Gweru politician Smiley Dube and Ncube himself.
“Only the residents of Midlands will be allowed to enter the fields and they will do so through ZANU PF structures. Those that are not known within the party will not have access and those from outside the Midlands will not be allowed here,” Ncube said while addressing ZANU PF supporters at the time.
Ncube is also known as a sidekick of Defence Minister Emmerson Mnangagwa. When Mnangagwa lost the Kwekwe Central parliamentary seat to MDC-T candidate Blessing Chebundo, Ncube mobilised a gang of thugs that burnt down Chebundo’s house.
The Crisis Coalition report says those helping Ncube wage his terror campaign are sitting ZANU PF MPs Lovemore Mupukuta (Mapfungautsi), Dorothy Mhangami (Gokwe) and party members Jairos Mapenduka and John Mapenduka. SW Radio Africa
To contact this journalist e-mail [email protected] or follow him on twitter @LanceGuma
