Jacob Zuma About To Send Mugabe More Than A Million Rounds of Ammunition

Best of Friends: Mugabe and Zuma at a recent Heads of State meeting in South Africa. South Africa is to send "more than a million rounds" of ammunition to Zimbabwe, the opposition Democratic Alliance has told the South African Parliament




Harare, Zimbabwe, 07 August 2009


A fact-finding mission from South Africa's Democratic Alliance opposition has told parliament that Mugabe is stockpiling weapons and is due to receive a shipment of ammunition from Jacob Zuma's government shortly.

South Africa has indeed sold 9mm and 7.2mm ammunition to Mugabe's armed forces and the shipment will shortly arrive in Zimbabwe, the South African parliament was told.

More than a million rounds of both types of ammunition are said to be on order.

The DA says it spoke to government ministers from the opposition parties and "people on the ground" to come to this conclusion. Venezuela, Cuba and North Korea were mentioned as sources of arms for Mugabe.

But they are barking up the wrong tree.

Mugabe has instead just purchased a consignment of arms from the Chinese.

The weapons, due to be quietly delivered through Angola include grenades, I am reliably informed. Defence Minister Mnangagwa, whose recent trip to China was spun as a counter to Tsvangirai's mission to the West, concluded the deal during that trip.

At the time, everybody swallowed the story that Mnangagwa was going to China to raise money for the Inclusive Government in order to show Tsvangirai up.

Yet no one has questioned why the Defence Minister came back silently and, almost a month later, nothing has been announced.

The US$950 million that Tsvangirai announced as a loan to Zimbabwe by the Chinese was clearly said to have been negotiated a long time ago by Gideon Gono.

Similarly, the much-touted US$5 billion deal was not a result of the trip by the Defence Minister. Instead, it was also part of the deal that involved the US$950 million.

So far, we know that AK 47s, mortar bombs and rockets have been delivered.

One of the reasons why Mugabe insisted on retaining control of the Armed Forces Ministries was so he could do exactly this without anyone asking him any awkward questions or the information leaking.

These issues are not put on the cabinet agenda by Mugabe.

A little while ago I told you about Mugabe's talks with the Koreans about selling Zimbabwe uranium to the Kim Jog Il regime. Again, this is not something Mugabe shares with his new partners in government.

What is particularly shocking, though, about the DA report to the South African parliament is that they name ministers in the government as having given them information.

Quite apart from the paranoid Official Secrets Act of Zimbabwe, this act puts the lives of the ministers, like Priscilla Mushonga-Msihairabwi, in peril. The risk is that they will be seen as still sleeping with the enemy, giving briefings (and fodder) to forces hostile to Robert "The Solution" Mugabe.


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