Shock as Mnangagwa appoints notorious Zanu PF gangster as State Security minister

Former Midlands Provincial Affairs Minister and Gokwe-Kana MP, Owen Ncube, a notorious Zanu PF gangster who led a violent party militia calling itself “Al Shabab” in Kwekwe, was yesterday sworn in as the new Minister of State for National Security in the President’s Office.

Ncube took his oath of office before President Emmerson Mnangagwa at State House. The ceremony was attended by the two Vice Presidents Dr Constantino Chiwenga and Kembo Mohadi. Minister Ncube, however, declined to talk to the media after taking his oath.

Chief Secretary to the President and Cabinet Dr Misheck Sibanda said the appointment was with immediate effect. “He has been appointed Minister of State for National Security in the Office of the President from today (yesterday),” Dr Sibanda said.

In September 2012, then Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai (now late) accused the then Defence Minister Emmerson Mnangagwa of bankrolling a violent gang of Zanu PF youths in Kwekwe calling themselves Al-Shabab after the Somali based Islamic group.

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. Ncube is also accused of being a key member of Mnangagwa’s gold mafia in the Midlands.

His appointment has been slammed by the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) who said “the Ministry of State Security is simply the Ministry of Gukurahundi, Murambatsvina and Political Violence. Who would have imagined a Mnangagwa government without that? It is always responsible for extra-legal activities, disappearances and human rights abuses.”

A statement by Dr Nkululeko Sibanda, a spokesman for MDC president Nelson Chamisa said “Mnangagwa could not resist his speciality – you cannot have a mafia regime that does not have an enforcer wing. He waited until everyone had forgotten about the cabinet then he dumps this Ministry, midweek, overshadowing the appointment with the Glen View copy-cat stunt.

“He has now realised that he is an illegitimate President, an Emperor without clothes, who now can no longer pretend to be a democrat, but rely on force and violence. After the MDC MPs exposed his illegitimacy he has decided that he must recreate the old Ministry of Gukurahundi. It has taken so short for the pretention to die out.

“There is no surprise here, this is Mugabe 2.0 and we always knew this, the choice of Owen Ncube is no surprise either. His relationship with violence is second to none and that alone exposes the illegitimate President’s real agenda. One can only imagine the German government bringing back the Gestapo Ministry but that will never happen,” Dr Sibanda added. 

In November 2017 when Mnangagwa had fired from both government and the ruling party Ncube’s Al Shabab group went on a rampage indiscriminately attacking commuter omnibus crews and residents with machetes demanding the reinstatement of protection fees.

Then Zanu PF Midlands provincial commissar Makhosini Hlongwane, visited one of the victims at Kwekwe General Hospital and said: “We have for too long allowed Kwekwe to be the citadel of violence majoring in brute force, majoring in thugocracy, majoring in subduction and constricting the political economy of the entire Midlands province.“

“Kwekwe is a horror zone where maiming and murder is the order of the day. Kwekwe General Hospital receives on average three patients per day, who are victims of gory attacks using pangas and machetes. 

“We have in 2017 the misfortune of having people that celebrate al Shabaab by adopting the name of the al-Shabaab terror group and they met out violence with wanton abundance in true terror style. “As the Midlands province, we condemn in the strongest terms all sorts and forms of violence being perpetrated in Kwekwe.” Nehanda Radio