Wife of CIO boss accused of terrorising Zanu PF and CIO members

CHINHOYI – Zimbabwe spy agency operatives based in Chinhoyi are working in fear of forced transfers or dismissal following reports that the wife of the Central Intelligence Organization (CIO) Deputy Director is terrorizing CIO operatives and ZANU PF members over the party’s ongoing restructuring exercise through a ZANU PF affiliate group linked to the CIO.

Jessica Tapfumaneyi is reportedly one of the leaders of Forever Associates of Zimbabwe (FAZ), a ZANU PF affiliate organization being spearheaded by the secret spy agency amidst accusations that the affiliate is being used to create parallel party structures.

She is the wife of Rtd Army Brigadier Asher Tapfumaneyi who is the current CIO Deputy Director.

Reliable sources within the spy agency and ZANU PF revealed that Tapfumaneyi is eyeing a parliamentary seat in the Zvimba South Constituency currently held by Presidential chief fundraiser Philip Chiyangwa and has been targeting Chiyangwa’s key allies in the constituency to weaken his support through a systematic process where party leaders sympathetic to the businessman will be arrested, or suspended from their positions over various trumped up charges.

“We are now working in fear for forced transfers or dismissal as she has taken over how we work as she directs us on what to do riding on her husband’s position and she has become to the point of even giving orders to our provincial boss” a central intelligence operative confided to Nehanda Radio.

“She has been instructing us to instill fear in party members suspected to be hostile to her ambitions for becoming an MP using the affiliate through claiming that some of the party members especially district chairpersons are working with the opposition so that they are taken away from her path and this issue is more pronounced in Zvimba South Constituency where she has a farm and where she intends to stand as an MP” he continued.

The CIO operative claimed that Mrs Tapfumaneyi has threatened those who try to resist her instructions with forced transfers or dismissal from the CIO organization.

The affiliate has recruited young people nationwide who are being paid by the government through the CIO with the least paid taking home US$200 among other perks as the country moves towards the general elections.

ZANU PF party leaders in Mashonaland West have been complaining over the affiliate with some saying the affiliate is demanding that the party reports to them on their activities including surrendering party membership registers currently being compiled under the party’s restructuring exercise.

“We are working well with our party affiliates such as Farmers for ED, Young Women for ED, Mahwindi for ED, and other’s who said they want to help us mobilize five million votes for President Mnangagwa but this affiliate FAZ is playing a big brother mentality and wants to direct and instruct how the party does its restructuring exercise which has caused a lot of problems as some party leaders are contemplating resigning from party positions especially district leaders who claim they are being victimized”

A ZANU PF Provincial member who requested not to be named for fear of victimization complained that the affiliate has appointed itself as a monitor of other organizations affiliated to the party.

ZANU PF spokesperson and politburo member Christopher Mutsvangwa who is leading the party restructuring exercise in Mashonaland West Province once told affiliates that the party is supreme and affiliate organizations should follow instructions from the party and not to lead or direct the party business.

“Affiliates such as FAZ and Heritage should be reminded that ZANU PF Party is supreme and affiliates cannot be the ones dictating on party issues, when you go to cell, branch, or district the party chairperson there is the one in charge as you ‘affiliates’ are there to help bring more members to the party just like when we were at war if you were given a gun that did not mean that the gun was now leading the war it was the party leading the war so affiliates should be guided accordingly” he once told a ZANU PF provincial coordinating committee meeting

Justice Minister and Politburo member Ziyambi Ziyambi echoed Mutsvangwa”s sentiments and said the party restructuring exercise is the sole duty of ZANU PF members and its leadership and warned affiliates against fanning parallel party structures.

“The party leaders are responsible for the restructuring exercise and not affiliates, affiliates should help us by bringing new members to the party and not demand to be given party structure registers as we don’t know where you want to take those records or else you will be creating a parallel structure, something which we do not want, ” he told the meeting.

Various party members have been reportedly arrested on the insistence of the affiliate members on various allegations which include the presidential agriculture inputs abuse it has been claimed.

“Tapfumanei who is a coordinator of the affiliate is targeting Chiyangwa’s allies so that it becomes easier for her when she wants to stand as an MP, she has been advocating that during the ongoing restructuring exercise, her affiliate cronies are demanding that they do the writing of party cell structures themselves or that we handover the membership cell registers to them which has raised a lot of questions as we do not know if the President has directed them to create party parallel structures as we see it, ” one of the ZANU PF district chairpeople said in Mashonaland West Province.

“We are worried about the damage this affiliate is causing the party as initially we were told that the affiliate is coming on board just like other affiliates to mobilize new party members but this affiliate is not doing that but is focusing more on frustrating party members and have not even brought a single new member to the party but only chaos,” another ZANU PF source said.

Investigations have shown that although Tapfumaneyi has ambitions to stand as an MP she has a contract from the Central Intelligence Organization to coordinate the affiliate with the contract barring her to stand for a public office where she can be elected.

“The contract she is on does not allow her to participate in elections for the public office although she thinks she might override that contract something which is not being allowed which will be our payback to her over her victimization of CIOs” a security agent source revealed to Nehanda Radio.

In 2018 she failed dismally in the ZANU PF primary elections to beat Chiyangwa with reports that the community in Zvimba accused her and her husband of terrorizing people.

“She is not a likeable person together with her husband who just have been ruthless from way back, the husband once caused the death of a man who had been caught after stealing three cobs from their farm and he tied him on his vehicle and dragged him naked to his death.

“He once exchanged gunfire with one Colonel Bastern Beta who was a neighbor farmer after he had blocked irrigation pipes to Beta’s farm by pouring concrete in the irrigation pipeline which resulted in Beta losing his wheat which then dried during the flowering stage, ” a ZANU PF member who is also a farmer in Trelawney farming area where the Tapfumaneyi’s has a farm told Nehanda Radio.