Army ‘threatened Mugabe with bloodbath’ in his last days in power
Zimbabwe’s military leaders warned former president Robert Mugabe that there would be bloodshed if he resisted a military takeover that ultimately resulted in his removal from office. This was revealed in documents sent by a new political party — the New Patriotic Front (NPF) — to the Southern Africa Development Community (SACD) and African Union on February 2. The documents show that the Zimbabwean National Army warned Mugabe against using the Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) and the Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) to counter them while he was on lock-down during his last days in office. According to a petition sent to SADC and the AU by the NPF‚ such a last-ditch effort to save Mugabe’s presidency would have culminated in a bloodbath on November 15. Among the information submitted through the party’s lawyer‚ Johannesburg-based Marius van Niekerk‚ was a 79-page document containing minutes of all meetings between Mugabe’s negotiation team and army commanders — documents that...
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