Mugabe: 'A sell-out is a sell-out'

28 Feb 2005 13:27 - Staff Reporter

Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has blasted ruling party officials for selling secrets to foreign governments in his first reaction on an alleged espionage ring involving senior Zanu-PF members and a South African spy. The state-run Herald daily on Monday quoted the octogenarian leader as saying that nobody involved in spying would be let off the hook.

The state-run Herald daily on Monday quoted the octogenarian leader as saying that nobody involved in spying would be let off the hook.

Zimbabwe African National Union Patriotic Front (Zanu-PF) lawmaker, Phillip Chiyangwa—a flamboyant businessman and Mugabe’s nephew—and three others were arrested last year on charges of spying for neighbouring South Africa.

They were accused of providing South African President Thabo Mbeki’s government with information on internal Zanu-PF affairs.

“It does not matter whether you are my relative or close friend, a sell-out is a sell-out,” the newspaper quoted Mugabe as telling a rally in the northern town of Chinhoyi.

“Even my own mother’s child, if he sells out, we condemn him,” Mugabe said at the town where Chiyangwa, his disgraced nephew, was the member of Parliament.

Chiyangwa, until recently a provincial chairperson of the ruling party, is alleged to have led a spy ring with five others, including Zanu-PF security officials, a diplomat and a banker.

The High Court freed Chiyangwa last week, days after three others had been jailed by a lower court for up to six years on similar spying charges.

One Zanu-PF official is awaiting trial while another diplomat is on the run.

Mugabe also attacked his former information minister, Jonathan Moyo, whom he accused of having presidential ambitions.

Mugabe sacked his former protege last week following Moyo’s decision to stand as an independent in the March 31 parliamentary elections after the Zanu-PF barred him from running for the polls over an alleged plot against party leadership.

“The president said there were some who joined the ruling party five years ago but already wanted to be vice-president and had rallied some party chairperson last year ... with the purpose of garnering support,” said the newspaper.