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A cable dispatched to Washington by the US Embassy in Rabat indicates that MDC-T leader Mr Morgan Tsvangirai received an unspecified sum of money during his visit to that country in late 2008.
It confirms that Morocco had previously provided him with “clandestine financial support”.
He also received a dubious prize at an event organised by a non-governmental organisation known as Amadeus then run by the son of Foreign Minister Taieb Fassi Fihri.
According to the cable, Mr Tsvangirai visited Morocco between November and December 2008.
He received a prize on November 29 after which he led a delegation to Rabat, where he held discussions with the minister, who expressed support for him and his party.
Part of the dispatch reads: “On December 1, Tsvangirai was in Rabat, where he and a delegation met with Foreign Minister Taieb Fassi Fihri.
“(Name removed) told us the discussions were warm with the Moroccan side expressing its support for Tsvangirai and the MDC.
“Tsvangirai later met with Moroccan External Service (DGED) chief Yassine Mansouri.”
The embassy also confirmed in the leaked cable that Morocco was meddling in Zimbabwe’s internal affairs by clandestinely channelling funds to Mr Tsvangirai.
“Morocco had previously provided Tsvangirai clandestine financial support and likely added to that during this trip,” reads the cable.
“Morocco would welcome the departure of (President) Mugabe, who has opposed its claim to the Western Sahara.”
Morocco quit the then Organisation for African Unity (OAU, now the African Union, AU) in 1984 in protest after the continental body recognised the independence of Western Sahara.
Spain, the former coloniser, had vacated the territory without granting it independence.
Morocco and Mauritania subsequently moved in and partitioned it in April 1976, with the former acquiring two-thirds.
Mauritania, however, abandoned its allotted portion after intense pressure from guerillas of the Popular Front for the Liberation of the Saguia el Hamra and Rio de Oro (Polisario Front), which, in 1976, formally proclaimed a government-in-exile.
Morocco and the Polisario Front fought for years with no resolution. It now appears the Moroccans seek to gain MDC-T support in the event that the party comes into power.
The North African country has previously worked with the United States to influence Zimbabwe’s internal affairs. In 1979, the American government funded the election campaigns of the late Bishop Abel
Muzorewa and Reverend Ndabaningi Sithole in the hope they would win the country’s first democratic polls in 1980.
Bishop Muzorewa and Rev Sithole received US funds from Morocco’s King Hassan.
Present when the clandestine transaction took place were Rhodesia’s Central Intelligence Organisation director-general, the late Ken Flower, and former deputy director of America’s Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the late Mr Vernon Walters.
The US and Britain sought to use the bishop and the reverend as resident representatives of Western interests in Zimbabwe and wanted to push President Mugabe and the then Zanu out of the picture.
Mr Walters’ intelligence operations confirm a longstanding Morocco-America alliance.
In 1973, he was dispatched to Rabat to hold secret meetings with PLO officials, warning them against a repetition of the murders of two American diplomats in the region. His biography shows that in a much earlier visit to that country, he had given a tank-ride to “a young boy who later became King Hassan II”.
Interestingly, Mr Tsvangirai has also been linked to the CIA and British intelligence.
In 2006, the MDC-T leader and an eight-member party delegation were deported from Zambia after holding a secret meeting with officials of a US-funded organisation called Freedom House.
It emerged then that the organisation was headed by former CIA and FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigations) agents.
Its board of trustees mainly comprised ex-FBI and CIA staff, former officials of American governments and serving American intelligence.
Last year, Britain’s Ambassador to Zimbabwe, Mr Mark Canning, confirmed Mr Tsvangirai, who is also Prime Minister in the inclusive Government, approached the British government to second someone to give him “technical support”.
It later came to light that British intelligence operative Mr Charles Heatly, alias Charles Beatle, was, in fact, in Zimbabwe and helped establish parallel government structures in the Prime Minister’s Office.
Political analyst Ambassador Christopher Mutsvangwa said Mr Tsvangirai was enslaving himself by associating with Morocco.
“Morocco has never considered itself an African Union (AU) member,” he said.
“It takes a racist view of Africa. So when the West wants to deal with issues in Africa, it becomes the conduit. In 1976, the United States used Moroccan soldiers to quell an uprising against Mobutu Sese Seko.
“The Prime Minister is enslaving himself in the neo-colonial camp and this is a sad commentary on him in a Sadc region where almost all countries fought for their independence.”
Ambassador Mutsvangwa said the North African country supported Rhodesian oppression.
“It has a pro-colonial stance. It was on the side of Ian Smith and now the Prime Minister is working with them. He is given to the back and not to the progress in world affairs. He wants to fixate himself with Europe, which is being rescued by China.
“As it stands, Spain, Greece and Germany have turned to China (for economic assistance).
“Southern Africa is the high growth region in Africa and is working with China.”
Online Reporter