Ministers Chombo, Goche caught in spy ring

Ministers Chombo, Goche caught in spy ring

GOCHE

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By Staff Reporter

TWO Zimbabwean Cabinet ministers under investigation on espionage charges are today named as Local Government Minister Ignatius Chombo and National Security Minister Nicholas Goche, New Zimbabwe.com can reveal.

Sources close to the investigation said last night that the two ministers had been caught in a spy web which has already seen President Robert Mugabe's nephew Phillip Chiyangwa charged with selling official State secrets to "hostile" Western governments.

The spying scandal which has been called Traitorsgate has shook government and President Robert Mugabe is said to have ordered the head of the Central Intelligence Organisation before leaving for his annual holiday in the Far East that "everything that can be done should be done to get information from the suspects whatever their public standing".

The sources told this website that the spying allegations against some of the officials dates back to the late 80s.

"It has become clear that this spying business is not new," our source told us. "It is a very old practice and some top intelligence agents who have stumbled on this information have either been bribed into silence or terminated (killed). There are yet more shocking revelations coming but Chombo and Goche's activities have come under the microscope."

The sources would not say when either of the ministers would be formerly arrested saying the investigations had not yet been concluded.

The sources said Chombo -- a close relative of the President and Phillip Chiyangwa -- faced almost identical allegations as Chiyangwa, while Goche was under investigation for knowing about the spying but "frustrating investigations".

A high-ranking agent in the Ministry of State Security was arrested last week for failling to pass information about the spying to his superiors. A link is being established between this official and Goche, our sources said.

New Zimbabwe.com was given the name of the official last night. He worked at the CIO Bulawayo headquarters at Magnet House at the height of the Matabeleland massacres in the 80s.

Our sources said an investigating team had also been assigned to probe "each and every member" of the now defunct Indigenous Business Development Centre (IBDC) which had Chiyangwa as a member among some notables like Strive Masiyiwa and banker Enock Kamushinda. It is not suggested that all former members of the IBDC are spies.

"We now believe that the IBDC was the epicentre of this whole spy ring. You can rest assured that the investigation will be concentrated there in the next few days," the source said.

The sources said a parallel investigation had been ordered into Phillip Chiyangwa's businesses and finances, including one which is ironically called CIA Marketing.

The investigators also want to know where Chiyangwa got the money to bring top American wrestlers including Virgin and the Bush Workers to Harare in 1992. At the time, our sources say, Chiyangwa ran a series of articles in the Horizon magazine which showed "a frightening knowledge of America".

The jaw-dropping news that two ministers were under investigation was served by the government-controlled Sunday Mail newspaper at the weekend, although their names were withheld.

The paper said the ministers were believed to have divulged confidential information to “hostile intelligence agencies,” including the US Central Intelligence Agency and Britain’s MI5.

“The officials would receive handsome payments from enemy agencies,” the Sunday Mail said.

The paper said Erasmus Moyo, a diplomat at the Zimbabwe embassy in Geneva, disappeared as he was being recalled to Harare. He checked-in for a homeward bound flight but then slipped away from colleagues escorting him to Geneva airport.

Chiyangwa, a prominent lawmaker; Godfrey Dzvairo, the country’s ambassador-designate to neighbouring Mozambique; and three other ruling-party officials were charged last week in a Harare court under the Official Secrets Act.

The men face a fine or a maximum 20 years in prison.
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