Mugabe ignored coup warnings: Jonathan Moyo

FORMER President Robert Mugabe was forewarned about the coup that would topple him from power, but distrusted those who warned him and believed his then deputy Emmerson Mnangagwa and former Defence Forces commander Constantino Chiwenga would never betray him, a former Cabinet minister has said.

In a wide-ranging interview with the Big Saturday Read published at the weekend by Alex Magaisa, former Higher Education minister Jonathan Moyo said Mugabe considers what his two former lieutenants did a “great betrayal” and “the utmost treachery”.

“… although he got various reports from different sources about the planning of the coup, President Mugabe did not believe those reports because he trusted Mnangagwa and Chiwenga more than he trusted those who gave him the reports,” he said of the November 2017 coup that toppled Mugabe.

This story is for NewsDay subscribers.