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Temba Dube Deputy News Editor—
POLICE were last night holding the deposed national war veterans chairman Cde Jabulani Sibanda, it is thought over a slur directed at President Robert Mugabe and the First Lady. Police spokesperson Senior Assistant Commissioner Charity Charamba last night said Sibanda faced a charge under section 33 of the Criminal Law and Codification Act. The law criminalises “undermining the authority of the President”.

“I can confirm he was arrested this afternoon (yesterday), although I don’t have much information at the moment,” said Snr Asst Comm Charamba, who was unable to say where the 45-year-old was being held.

His wife, Sifiso, told The Chronicle that Cde Sibanda was picked up by police at his farm in Nyamandlovu just before 3PM yesterday.

“The men who took him said they were from Harare. He called us later and said senior police officers from Harare had arrested him. He said he didn’t know the reason for his arrest, and couldn’t say where they were taking him,” she said.

She said after the call, Sibanda became unreachable on his mobile phone.

Police sources told The Chronicle that investigators were keen to get the former war veterans leader to clarify comments he made in which he appeared to accuse President Mugabe of plotting a “bedroom coup” while voicing his opposition to First Lady Cde Grace Mugabe’s imminent elevation to lead the Zanu-PF Women’s League.

In October, Sibanda declared he would boycott the First Lady’s popular meet-the-people rallies held in all the country’s 10 provinces.

He firmly sided with Vice President Joice Mujuru, who has been accused of plotting to overthrow the President and also faces a string of corruption allegations.

Cde Sibanda vowed to boycott the First Lady’s rallies until she stopped her public attacks on Cde Mujuru.

He said he was ready to defend his position and warned that real war veterans would resist attempts to stage “a bedroom coup”, drawing a sharp rebuke from President Mugabe who said the war veterans leader was possessed by the “spirit of Beelzebub”.

“If you want to find me guilty of not attending the First Lady’s rallies, I plead guilty on that one and I won’t attend unless the programme changes. I can’t attend a function where they say ‘Pamberi ne Mazoe Crush’, ‘Pasi ne Gamatox’. That slogan is unknown in Zanu-PF,” Cde Sibanda charged.

“All able-bodied people should stand up . . . and block attempts to stage a coup both in the boardroom and in the bedroom.”

Cde Sibanda’s outbursts sparked outrage among fellow war veterans who promptly disowned him and moved swiftly to suspend and then expel him from the organisation, with Cde Chris Mutsvangwa emerging as the new leader.

The war veterans said Cde Sibanda’s utterances left no doubt that there was a faction in Zanu-PF that had already elevated Cde Mujuru to the post of de facto president and first secretary of the party, since such a “coup” could only be carried out on a sitting President.

The war vets said it was Cde Sibanda and his group who had instead attempted a coup on President Mugabe by “clandestinely anointing Cde Mujuru.”

Cde Pupurai Togarepi, the Zimbabwe National Liberation War Collaborators Association chairperson led the charge, blasting: “Where did he see the President’s bedroom? This is an insult on the President.”