Asher Walter Tapfumaneyi

Tapfumaneyi also served in the President’s Department between 2005 and 2009 as director.^[1]

Events

Jestina Mukoko Abduction

Asher Walter Tapfumanei was identified as one of human rights activist Jestina Mukoko’s abductors. In 2008, Mukoko was abducted at gunpoint at her Norton home and severely tortured at the height of political tensions in Zimbabwe.

However, in 2017, High Court judge, Justice Nyaradzo Priscilla Munangati-Manongwa ruled that former Intelligence Minister, Didymus Mutasa, Tapfumaneyi and Chief Superintendent Peter Magwenzi of the ZRP could be sued in their personal capacities for abducting and torturing Mukoko.

This was after Mukoko had been awarded $150 000 as compensation for the damages that she suffered while held incommunicado for three weeks by state security agents in December 2008.^[2]

British American Tobacco Bribery Scandal

A joint investigation by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, BBC Panorama and the University of Bath reveals British American Tobacco (BAT) was linked to a conspiracy to pay a bribe of between US$300 000 and US$500 000 to Robert Mugabe to get certain people released from jail.

The people were employed by a security company contracted by FSS, a South African company contracted by BAT to conduct a secret operation to hamper rival tobacco businesses in Zimbabwe. The three directors of that company were arrested and charged with conspiracy to commit robbery.

Asher Walter Tapfumaneyi proposed a bribe to Mugabe and Zanu-PF to get the directors off the hook and protect BAT’s name. At the time he was a director at the Ministry of State of Presidential Affairs.^[3]

FAZ/Zanu PF primary elections

It has been reported in May 2023 that President Emmerson Mnangagwa created a parallel structure, to run internal polls of his party, Zanu PF. It is run by the Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) and will influence the outcome of the upcoming elections in August.

Zanu PF’s primary elections were held in March and showed massive rigging and vote-buying. At the core of the scandal was the Forever Associates Zimbabwe (FAZ), run by CIO deputy director Retired Brigadier-General Walter Tapfumaneyi, which took this role over from Heritage Trust that ran the national elections in November 2018. The Zanu PF primaries included some surprises, such as Mnangagwa’s closest ally Justice minister Ziyambi Ziyambi and Mashonaland West Provincial Affairs minister Mary Mliswa-Chikoka, not being elected. ^[4]

Tapfumaneyi, Chihoyi

It was reported in March 2023, that CIO agents in Chinhoyi were working in fear of forced transfers or dismissal as Jessica Tapfumaneyi, the wife of the Central Intelligence Organization (CIO) Deputy Director, Rtd Army Brigadier Asher Tapfumaneyi was terrorizing CIO operatives and Zanu PF members over the party’s ongoing restructuring exercise through a Zanu PF affiliate group linked to the CIO. Jessica Tapfumaneyi is reportedly one of the leaders of Forever Associates Zimbabwe (FAZ).

Asher Tapfumaneyi is reportedly seeking a parliamentary seat in Zvimba South Constituency, currently held by Presidential chief fundraiser Philip Chiyangwa, so has been targeting Chiyangwa’s key allies in the constituency to weaken his support through a systematic process where party leaders sympathetic to the businessman will be arrested, or suspended from their positions over various trumped up charges. A confidential informant said, She has been instructing us to instill fear in party members suspected to be hostile to her ambitions for becoming an MP using the affiliate through claiming that some of the party members especially district chairpersons are working with the opposition so that they are taken away from her path and this issue is more pronounced in Zvimba South Constituency where she has a farm and where she intends to stand as an MP he continued. The ‘affiliate’ has recruited young people nationwide who are being paid by the government through the CIO with the least paid taking home US$200 among other perks as the country moves towards the general elections.

So there is some confusion and blurring of lines dividing state and government actions and funds, not to mention the question, is she standing or her husband?

Zanu PF spokesperson and politburo member Christopher Mutsvangwa, who was leading the party restructuring exercise in Mashonaland West Province, once told affiliates that the party is supreme and affiliate organizations should follow instructions from the party and not to lead or direct the party business. Affiliates such as FAZ and Heritage should be reminded that Zanu PF Party is supreme and affiliates cannot be the ones dictating on party issues, when you go to cell, branch, or district the party chairperson there is the one in charge as you ‘affiliates’ are there to help bring more members to the party just like when we were at war if you were given a gun that did not mean that the gun was now leading the war it was the party leading the war so affiliates should be guided accordingly he once told a Zanu PF provincial coordinating committee meeting. Justice Minister and Politburo member Ziyambi Ziyambi echoed Mutsvangwas sentiments and said the party restructuring exercise was the sole duty of Zanu PF members and its leadership and warned affiliates against fanning parallel party structures. ^[5]

References