This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 HARARE 002063 
 
SIPDIS 
 
AF/S FOR BNEULING 
NSC FOR SENIOR AFRICA DIRECTOR C. COURVILLE 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/08/2009 
TAGS: PGOV PREL PHUM ZI ZANU PF
SUBJECT: MUGABE, OLD GUARD ASCENDANT IN NEW POLITBURO 
 
REF: HARARE 2001 
 
Classified By: Ambassador Christopher W. Dell under Section 1.5 b/d 
 
¶1.  (C) SUMMARY: President Mugabe on December 17 announced a 
new 50-member Politburo.  The new membership confirms the 
decline in influence of Speaker of the Parliament Emmerson 
Mnangagwa as well as the fall from grace of hard-liners 
Information Minister Jonathan Moyo and Minister of Justice 
Patrick Chinamasa.  Moyo,s fall is particularly welcome news 
and may lead to a further softening of the regime's 
anti-Western rhetoric.  However, the real story here is the 
consolidation of power by the party's Old Guard, their 
suppression of dissent, and the reaffirmation of Mugabe's 
absolute position atop the ruling party.  A full listing of 
the new Politburo is being faxed to AF/S.  END SUMMARY. 
 
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The New Line-Up: the Old Guard 
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¶2.  (SBU) One of the most notable changes in the new-look 
ZANU-PF Politburo -- the policy-making organ of the ruling 
party -- was the effective demotion of Speaker Mnangagwa, 
long seen as Mugabe's putative heir apparent.  Mnangagwa was 
dropped as Secretary for Administration, the party's fifth 
highest position, and demoted to Secretary for Legal Affairs. 
 In that position, he replaced Justice Minister Patrick 
Chinamasa, one of the hard-liners that Mugabe felt had 
challenged him during the run-up to the recent ZANU-PF Party 
Congress.  Chinamasa lost his slot in the Politburo 
altogether and his odds of staying on in the cabinet are 
exceedingly long. 
 
¶3.  (SBU) The new Secretary for Administration is Didymus 
Mutasa, an unsuccessful vice-presidential aspirant, former 
Secretary for External Affairs, and card carrying member of 
 
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the Old Guard who lost the Secretary for Administration 
position to Mnangagwa in 2000.  Another regime veteran, 
Kumbirai Kangai, ZANU-PF's representative to North America 
during the 1960s and 1970s and a former Minister of 
Agriculture, will assume Mutasa's External Affairs portfolio. 
 
¶4.  (SBU) Also dislodged from the Politburo was the party's 
voluble lightning rod, Information Minister and Party Deputy 
Secretary for Information Jonathan Moyo.  His slot went to 
 
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Mashonaland Central Governor Ephraim Masawi, a protg of 
Party Secretary for Information Nathan Shamuyarira, who 
retained his senior position.  Like Chinamasa, Moyo will 
retain his position in the Government for now but his days 
are likely numbered.  Interestingly, Chinamasa, who has been 
Mugabe's principal negotiator in the closely held inter-party 
"talks on talks" that were suspended last July, remained on 
the Central Committee; Moyo did not. 
 
¶5.  (SBU) Other notable changes include the appointments of 
retired Chief of Staff General Vitalis Zvinavashe and former 
Manicaland Governor Oppah Muchinguri.  The latter replaced 
another vice-presidential loser, Thenjiwe Lesabe, as the 
Secretary for Women's Affairs.  Lesabe, who challenged Msika 
 
SIPDIS 
as part of Manangawa,s plan to become a vice-president while 
adhering to Mugabe,s diktat that one of the vice presidents 
be female, will remain in the Politburo as a committee 
member. 
 
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Insider Gossip 
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¶6.  (C) According to an FSN close to the Chinamasa family, 
Chinamasa's wife confided to her last week that the initial 
provincial committee votes on the presidium actually gave a 
narrow victory to Mnangagwa over Joyce Mujuru for the open 
Vice Presidency; incumbent VP Joseph Msika narrowly beat 
Lesabe in the first vote; and the battle for the party 
chairmanship between Chinamasa and incumbent John Nkomo 
originally came out in a tie.  However, Mugabe rejected the 
results and instructed that the vote be reconducted until 
Mujuru, Msika and Nkomo emerged victorious. 
 
¶7.  (C) Chinamasa's wife also confided that Party Secretary 
for Finance David Karamanzira, Party Deputy Secretary for 
Youth Affairs Savior Kasukuwere, Minister for National 
Security Nicholas Goche (all from Mugabe's Zezuru ethnic 
group), and Muchinguri (like Chinamasa and Mutasa, a Manyika) 
had gone privately to Mutasa to urge that Chinamasa be 
"rubbed out."  She added that a group of army personnel 
visited Chinamasa's farm last week, asking for details about 
who lived there and how they acquired the farm.  She claimed 
that Msika and Nkomo had been most rabid of the party 
elements behind the fall of Mnangagwa's group, and that 
Mutasa was being rewarded for standing firm on the 
President's "ticket" against his Manicaland provincial 
committee, which sided with the Mnangagwa clique. 
 
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Comment 
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¶8.  (C) The chastening and departure of some hardliners is 
good news and may contribute further to a softening of the 
ruling party's public rhetoric.  That said, the party's 
fundamentally anti-democratic character is unlikely to 
change.  The real lesson behind the Politburo reshuffle and 
outcome of the Party Congress is that an all-powerful Mugabe 
will brook no meaningful dissent or even independence of 
thought among those in his coterie. 
 
¶9.  (C) Whether Ms. Chinamasa's account of the presidium vote 
can be corroborated or not, the disappointment of many party 
faithful over what was perceived to be a suppression by the 
President of the "popular will" is palpable and not likely to 
recede quickly.  Whether it has long-term resonance remains 
to be seen.  We fully expect that Mnangagwa and his 
disappointed supporters, attentive to the lessons of Moyo, 
Chinamasa and others who have crossed the President, will 
stick with the party through the March elections and mute 
their disappointment. 
DELL