Zimbabwe 'coup plotters' back in court

Zimbabwe 'coup plotters' back in court

MNANGAGWA: Says allegations 'just stupid'

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By Lebo Nkatazo

SIX men charged with leading an attempt to stage a military overthrow of President Robert Mugabe and replace him with one of his ministers appeared before a Harare court on Tuesday for a routine remand hearing amid tight security.

Albert Matapo, a retired soldier who fled fraud allegations in the United Kingdom two years ago, is accused of leading the plot which prosecutors say was to be executed on June 15.

It is also claimed that the plotters wanted Rural Housing Minister Emmerson Mnangagwa – also a member of Zanu PF’s politburo – to become President, with Matapo declaring himself the new Prime Minister.

A Harare magistrate remanded the men to July 2. They will next appear in court on Friday for a bail application hearing.

Armed police and prison officers encircled the Harare Magistrates’ Court as the men were brought to court.

Matapo is accused alongside Nyasha Zivuka, Oncemore Mudzurahona, Shingirai Mutemachani, Patson Mupfure and Emmanuel Marara.

Lawrence Phiri, leading the prosecution team, alleges that Matapo conspired with his co-accused persons and recruited members of the security forces from the Zimbabwe National Army, the Air Force of Zimbabwe and assigned them to play different roles in the intended coup.

The allegations date back to June last year when the six are alleged to have invited a soldier, Olivine Maroala, to Matapi's office and told him that they intended to recruit soldiers for a planned coup.

The alleged coup plot was foiled after the suspects were nabbed at Wilrose Court along Nelson Mandela Avenue where they were holding a meeting.

Matapo fled from the UK two years ago after facing accusations that he ran an illegal network that channelled hundreds of members of Zimbabwe's ruling Zanu PF party into Britain.

Matapo, who was based in Birmingham, was thought to have given fake documents to party members and coached them on how to falsely claim asylum. Undercover reporters for BBC Radio 5 Live were sold a Home Office letter granting asylum and a national insurance number.

Speaking through his lawyer this week, Matapo claimed he was a "victim of internal Zanu-PF politics".

The 40-year-old said that he was a victim of "dirty political tricks being engineered by politicians yet to be identified", reports Britain’s Daily Telegraph newspaper.

The ruling Zanu-PF party is divided into two main factions, one led by Solomon Mujuru, a former army commander, and the other dominated by Emmerson Mnangagwa, a cabinet minister for the past 27 years.

Matapo, who sought to be a Zanu-PF candidate in parliamentary elections two years ago, said that he had "never met Mnangagwa, never spoken to him, and had only seen him on television".

The accused "heard Mnangagwa's name for the first time at the court when the police were giving evidence in camera where they mentioned he was to be installed as a leader in the event of a coup".

Matapo was "shocked by the police's evidence" and "baffled". He believes that the case against him has been trumped up to disguise the extent of the infighting within Zanu-PF.

Jonathan Samkange, the lawyer who is defending Matapo, said that his client was arrested at his office in central Harare along with three other men. They were in the process of forming a new opposition party, styling itself the United Democratic Front.

Police seized documents during the raid, but Samkange said that none of this evidence suggested a coup was being planned.

Zimbabwe's spiralling economic crisis has weakened Mugabe's grip on power. His allies might have faked the alleged coup plot in order to bolster his position by rallying his supporters inside Zanu-PF and discrediting Mnangagwa.

Mnangagwa has described the allegations as "just stupid".

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