Mandaza responds to Mnangagwa, accuses him of working with Tsvangirai to topple Mugabe

Sapes Trust leader Ibbo Mandaza has responded to Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s claim that his organisation is a Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)-linked think-tank that is working with Higher and Tertiary Education minister Jonathan Moyo to topple President Robert Mugabe.

Mandaza claims that Mnangagwa’s supporter Christopher Mutsvangwa approached him to help push for a transitional government that would have been led by Mnangagwa and Morgan Tsvangirai. Mandaza said that he rejected the offer after he was approached by a South African minister about the proposed National Transitional Authority (NTA). Said Mandaza:

An official from minister Radebe’s office called me to ascertain whether I knew Mutsvangwa and if we were working together on our NTA initiative. I told him I knew him but we were not working together on the NTA. I told him our idea of an NTA was non-partisan and that there was no way we could work with Mutsvangwa, especially with the public knowledge that he was working to impose Mnangagwa as Mugabe’s successor. It is our reaction to the invitation to work on the Mutsvangwa NTA model that incensed Mnangagwa, hence his vilification of Sapes with unfounded allegations that we are a CIA-linked think tank in his shallow politburo presentation. I asked him about his claims that we were working together in the NTA. He refused but I told him I had been called by Radebe’s office.

When contacted by The Standard for a comment, Mutsvangwa denied Mandaza’s allegations.

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