> Let's Forward this Post Everywhere ❕ *[🌕] DIPLOMACY , PROPAGANDA and PARANOIA : The Inside Story of the changes at the CIO* *PART 2* LONG READ ✍🏻 VIEW & FOLLOW THIS CHANNEL✅️ https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VagGq6t30LKOGkSspb1w > The inside story of how Isaac Moyo was appointed and then removed from the CIO and why Zimbabwe's Intelligence has a new boss and is now taking on a new path It was at a meeting discussing all possible methods to ensure an Emmerson Mnangagwa (ED) presidency would not only happen but be sustained, back in 2011, that the CIO was flagged as a potential problem. The roundtable discussion was chaired by the current Minister of Energy and Power Development, July Moyo, and attended by party heavyweights, including the late Senator Shuvai Mahofa, and other key figures like Jorum Gumbo, Special Advisor to the President and responsible for Monitoring the Implementation of Government Programmes. The CIO was then flagged as a potential banana skin if Robert Mugabe, who had promised to pick Mnangagwa as his successor, changed his mind. Mugabe's change of mind was seen as a real possibility. After all, he had moved from wanting Joyce Mujuru to succeed him to Mnangagwa, all based on shady intelligence reports that included claims Mujuru slaughtered black chickens halaal style. The reports, seen by Dug Up, are dated March 2010 and delivered during ‘The president’s weekly brief’. In them, Mujuru was accused bizarrely of mixing the ‘dead’ chicken blood with her menstrual fluids and then performing rituals meant to hasten Mugabe’s natural progression in life. This high-level delegation did not have the foresight to imagine a coup being a possibility nor did they have the seniority to hold any discussions with military personnel. Senior and high profile as they were, any collaboration with the army was off the table and not a subject of discussion. The structure and make-up of the CIO is what was discussed. Fearful of the reach of the CIO, July Moyo was tasked with delivering the group’s resolutions and findings to ED in a private meeting Although he doesn’t quite remember the date, July Moyo’s driver at the time told Dug Up, that the following day, ED’s entourage was forced to do a U-turn in Kadoma and return to ED’s farm to hear July Moyo’s report. ED had been in Kwekwe that weekend, but had left earlier than planned - or July Moyo had been late to arrive. When July Moyo realised ED had left, he called him or his number - ED returned and the minutes were delivered. The meeting, held at July Moyo’s homestead in Kwekwe, flagged two important things. 1, the CIO could be weaponised against Mnangagwa in the same way as it had against Mujuru. 2, should ED become president, by whatever route, the CIO needed to be changed, from top to bottom. > Understand the CIO and the reasons why it was flagged Unlike most intelligence services worldwide, Zimbabwe’s Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) operates differently. While organisations like the CIA in America, Mossad in Israel, or even the equally infamous NIS in Kenya adopt a ‘national security’ interest, the CIO is a different animal altogether. Potential recruits spend months at the CIO Training School (TS) in Homestead, Msasa Park. There, in uncertain terms, they are told that the mandate of the CIO and any recruit’s immediate and everyday concern should be to “break or bend the law in presidential interests”. Under Mugabe, the CIO was loaded with extremely loyal appointees and trainees. It is the one branch of the security apparatus that ED did not have on his side. Neither did he attempt to sway them. Events accelerated and in 2017 armed soldiers, mostly from the infantry brigade out of Inkom Barracks were deployed to the streets. Mugabe was removed and the rest is common knowledge. The CIOs were among the first targets of the army. Their headquarters were besieged and their agents were targeted. The initial reasoning, according to the late SB Moyo was that the CIO, like the ZRPs paramilitary wing, the Presidential Guard and the Airforce were flagged as high-risk colleagues who could try to counter-deploy and attack the infantry brigade which had arrested the president and by all intents orchestrated a coup. CIO agents who were not at Chaminuka Building (The Headquarters) or Charter House a few streets down, hid their weapons and went underground. On the first night of the coup, soldiers targeted known CIO vehicles - at the time the very famous Datsun vehicles that low-level operatives drove. So the agents abandoned these and went into hiding. > The diplomat Isaac Moyo (DG) had been Zimbabwe’s Ambassador to South Africa, for a while, before the military intervention. He was a close ally of ED and enjoyed a personal relationship with him. When ED was Vice President, Moyo arranged for him to visit South Africa and meet business leaders and potential investors. Moyo garnered support for ED, especially from white Rhodesians and wealthy white South Africans, seen as having great sway with Washington and London. The DG also played a critical role in ensuring EDs brand was seen as ‘business friendly’ long before the Zimbabwe is Open for Business line that characterised the current government in its early days. When it became clear that ED was going to be the next president, Moyo was earmarked as the new Director General of the CIO - hence we refer to him as DG - and also to avoid confusion with Moyo July. Moyo’s experience was in foreign affairs and diplomacy. He was a career diplomat who had a part in several foreign missions including as a junior officer in Addis. He was largely credited with fixing affairs at the Zimbabwean Embassy in Pretoria and the Zimbabwean Consulate. Both were seen as nearly useless before Isaac Moyo. Similarly, Isaac was a different kind of ambassador. He interacted with fierce critics of Zanu PF and created powerful relationships even with political opponents. This allowed him to garner useful intelligence, which Harare had not been able to get using threats and violence. Even Mugabe was impressed and in a visit in 2016 heaped praise on Isaac’s efficiency. Via DG, Zimbabweans in exile were pretty much disarmed. Protests against the government - like the vigils often seen in London stopped. Isaac opened the door to the most hostile opposition figures, hosted them for lunch, allowed them to vent, and leveraged these relationships to stop ‘hostility’ towards the government in Harare. Of course, diplomats have to be competent in intelligence. Foreign affairs departments are spooks. So are foreign missions. But in the Zimbabwean context, there is a slight difference. CIOs are rarely referred to as agents, but more as operatives - due to the nature of their activities. The CIO itself (remember the mandate) sets out to break and bend the law to benefit the presidency. But the problem in 2017 was that all those operatives and their bosses knew how to break the law for Mugabe and disliked ED. So enter the diplomat - tasked with reforming the CIO. In his early days, Isaac, who had been seen as a good administrator and manager set out to reform the CIO. Under Mugabe, the organisation was feared and rogue. Spooks are meant to be covert. *To be Continued Tomorrow Same time* *Source Maynard Manyowa*