Arrest of Tsvangirai ally threatens fragile Zimbabwe coalition

Published on Thursday 10 March 2011 17:26

PRIME minister Morgan Tsvangirai said he wanted a divorce from Zimbabwe's power-sharing government yesterday after police detectives arrested one of his leading allies.

Energy minister Elton Mangoma, a member of Mr Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party, was arrested at his offices in Harare, days after he claimed that managers at the state fuel procurement firm were guilty of fraud.

He is the third MDC politician to be arrested in less than a month.

State radio accused Mr Mangoma of bypassing tender procedures when he bought five million litres of diesel from a South African firm in January.

However, Mr Tsvangirai claimed the minister was the victim of a "barbaric and senseless dictatorship".

"We have reached a moment where we say enough is enough," he added, calling for a "clean divorce".

Mr Tsvangirai said in a statement that the minister's arrest was "an attempt to cloud and obscure the massive corruption in Zimbabwe - the people of Zimbabwe will not accept this."

Last month, Mr Mangoma said a forensic audit showed managers at the state NOCZIM fuel procurement company - which is in the hands of President Robert Mugabe's loyalists - had "stolen" $35 million that should have been remitted to the tax authorities between February 2009 and February 2010.

Vowing then to "sort out" NOCZIM, the minister said company officials had failed to account for strategic reserve stocks and had deliberately omitted to produce audited financial statements in 2009.

Investigators appeared to have seized on revelations that Mr Mangoma bypassed tender procedures when ordering $6m worth of diesel from South Africa's NOOA Petroleum during fuel shortages in January.

The minister has said NOOA's was "the only fuel that was available at the time".

However, ZANU-PF officials claimed the firm was not on a list of registered fuel companies. They also complained that very little of the consignment landed in Zimbabwe and said Mr Mangoma had paid for it with money from a fund that only Mr Mugabe has authority to use.

Mr Mangoma claimed on 24 February that the first train carrying the fuel was deliberately held up for 10 days at Beitbridge border post and "(it) only offloaded last week".

Two other MDC MPs are in custody. Douglas Mwonzora, the co-chair of a committee responsible for writing a new constitution, is being held on violence charges. Lawmaker Rodgers Tazviona has been accused of threatening a traditional chief.

More than 1,000 MDC supporters have been forced to flee their homes in the recent wave of violence.Police appear to be deliberately targeting opponents of Mugabe while providing protection to his supporters.

Police chief Augustine Chihuri last week ridiculed the MDC's co-minister of home affairs, Theresa Makone, telling parliament she was "abusing her office" by confronting police who stopped her addressing a meeting.

Ms Makone is supposed to be Mr Chihuri's superior.