Mutasa swindles white farmers

              

                                            By Tawanda Gava
 

HARARE – State Security minister Didymus Mutasa who is also responsible for the Lands, Land Reform and Resettlement, is yet to be prosecuted following an investigation by Central Intelligence Organization (CIO) operatives late last year on charges of extorting white farmers huge amounts of foreign currency.

A dossier on Mutasa’s clandestine dealings was presented to President Robert Mugabe who had ordered the CIO to investigate Mutasa after two white farmers, whose identities are being withheld, complained to him about Mutasa.

The two farmers who made the complaints claimed that they had paid Mutasa US$75 000 and US$84 000 in October 2006 as payment for him to not compulsorily acquire their farms in Mashonaland West province.
 

They told Mugabe that they had been paying Mutasa since April 2005 when he had been made minister for both national security and lands giving him sweeping powers.
 

High-ranking CIO sources said the investigation was carried out between November and December and the findings presented to Mugabe. Mugabe is yet to take any action however.
 

“The money was deposited in a Foreign Currency Account registered under the name D.N.E. Mutasa. The report details that Mutasa has been extorting huge sums of money from the remaining few white farmers whose number is below 500 since he took the Lands office,” one source said. Mutasa’s full name is Didymus Noel Edwin Mutasa.
 

The farmers are alleged to have appealed to Makonde legislator Leo Mugabe who advised them to take the matter up to President Mugabe.  

 

Police reluctant

 

It is estimated that Mutasa has managed to extort over US$1.7 million but the figure is yet to be confirmed as the matter has been handed over to the Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) who were instructed to interview all white farmers to ascertain how much they were swindled off. 

  However ZRP has appeared reluctant to move with the investigation fearing his powerful position as State Security minister.

 
  Mutasa has of late been backing the dismissal of CIO director-general Happyton Bonyongwe who has fell out of favour with Mugabe over his links to Simba Makoni and retired general Solomon Mujuru.

  Reached for comment, Mutasa would not respond to questions posed to him and switched off his phone.

  Information and Publicity minister Sikhanyiso Ndlovu and presidential spokesperson George Charamba were not reachable while deputy information minister Bright
Matonga said he was unaware of the developments.

  “I am not aware of that and I am thus not in a position to comment,” he said.  Leo Mugabe referred questions to Zanu PF spokesperson Nathan Shamuyarira saying he
was too junior to comment on party seniors like Mutasa.

  "Speak to Shamuyarira, I am just a small boy in Zanu PF and cannot comment," he said.  Shamuyarira would not take a call from this reporter however.

 

''Caught in a web''

  Mutasa has courted the ire of Mugabe in recent times, with his latest gaffe being the Chinhoyi Diesel incident in which a local spirit medium Rotina Mavhunga fraudulently claimed that diesel was coming from a rock in Chinhoyi near Lions Den.

  Mugabe sent a five minister team comprised of Mutasa who led the inter-ministerial committee, Home Affairs minister Kembo Mohadi, Defence minister Sydney Sekeramayi,
Energy and Power Development minister Mike Nyambuya and Science and Technology minister Olivia Muchena.

  After Mavhunga had failed to produce the diesel on several visits made by the inter-ministerial team, Mohadi, Sekeramayi, Nyambuya and Muchena gave up and
reported to Mugabe that Mavhunga appeared to be a fraudster.

  Mutasa, however, made a pact with Mavhunga who promised him the presidency. Unbeknown to Mutasa was that his state security aides relayed the information to Mugabe who lashed out at Mutasa in cabinet and politburo meetings in July last year.