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From Tawanda Mangoma in Chiredzi
Zimbabwe Sugar Milling Industry Workers Union secretary-general Cde Admore Hwarare yesterday confirmed that he met Zanu-PF Politburo member Cde Nicholas Goche who confided in him his secret plot to assassinate President Mugabe.Cde Hwarare said reports carried by our Harare Bureau last week that Cde Goche told him that there would be war at the Zanu-PF National People’s Congress next week where some people will be flushed down the toilet were true.

He said it was also true that Cde Goche took him aside at a function in Chiredzi and told him that there would be real war at the congress that would result in President Mugabe being shot by those aligned to a plot to oust him.

In an exclusive interview with our Harare Bureau, Cde Hwarare said he was prepared to testify in court to expose the plot to assassinate President Mugabe some few days before next week’s congress.

Cde Hwarare said he met Cde Goche on September 7 this year at Wild Ox Bar and at Muteri Lodge in Triangle, but said he would not refute the report by our Harare Bureau because it was true.

Cde Goche reportedly told the Politburo that he was not in Chiredzi on September 7.

“The issues which have been reported in the editions of The Herald and The Sunday Mail are true,” Cde Hwarare said. “I’m not the one who brought the matter into the papers, but I was visited by some intelligence personnel whom I told what transpired at the meetings we had with Minister Goche.

“I can confirm meeting the Minister, but it is unfortunate that you now want to ask me about the matter after you’ve already written about it.”

Cde Goche opened up recently to Cde Hwarare on the sidelines of meetings he held with the officials from the Zimbabwe Sugar Cane Milling Union that war was imminent in Zanu-PF as some people would be shot in the run-up to the congress.

Cde Goche’s utterances, which dovetail with pronouncements by Zanu-PF secretary for administration Cde Didymus Mutasa and deposed spokesperson Rugare Gumbo — who were recorded saying if President Mugabe blocked Vice President Joice Mujuru’s ascendancy he would be shot and deposed the Kabila way — indicate that something ominous was in the offing in Zanu-PF ahead of the congress.

DRC President Laurent-Désiré Kabila was deposed by a member of his security team in 2001.

Cde Goche attended the meeting at Wild Ox Club and Muteri Lodge where he was told of problems afflicting the sugar cane milling union, and on the sidelines of the meeting he told Cde Hwarare that what was taking place in the Zimbabwe Sugar Cane Milling Union wasn’t war as real war was coming in the run-up to the congress when guns would be fired and people he didn’t mention would be “flushed down the toilet”.

Vice President Mujuru is the patron of the Zimbabwe Sugar Cane Millers Union.

Members of the President’s Office Messrs Muza, Chikanya and Peter Saburi, along with party legislators for Chiredzi East Cdes Denford Masiya and Chiredzi West Darlington Chiwa attended the meeting.

“Yamunayo kuno haisi hondo, real war is coming ahead of Congress. Pfuti dzicharira (What you have here is not war, real war is coming, shots will be fired),” Cde Goche was quoted as having said.

He confirmed the meeting with Cde Hwarare, but refuted making the statements about pending war in Zanu-PF.

He allegedly used the cover of official Government business in Western Europe to make stops in Israel and South Africa to look for a hitman to assassinate President Mugabe in pursuance of the plots which led to the suspension of Cde Gumbo.

Cde Hwarare said he was visited by some intelligence officials last week at which he confidently unmasked the plot which was being crafted by Cde Goche and his allies.

“The Minister brought with him some directors from the ministry, there were some people from the President’s office and members of Parliament from Chiredzi,” he said.

“Why would it be of interest for Hwarare to be the main respondent? What I know is what I said, I didn’t add anything, I just told the intelligence personnel what I heard and listened to during the meeting.”