‘Nguni begged for US assistance’

Sylvester Nguni allegedly asked “for rapid donor assistance to buoy the reform process” and for the United States government to reward progress that Zanu-PF had made.
Emphasising that Zanu-PF was no longer monolithic, he reportedly asked for support for “change elements” in the party and contended that more Zanu-PF members wanted change.

Minister Nguni, who was the Economic Development Minister, allegedly told the United States Embassy officials in Harare on October 20 2008 that Zanu-PF had become desperate and could cede economic policy to MDC to save face.
He, however, yesterday laughed off the allegations calling them “senseless”.

“I do not recall meeting any official from the US Embassy. I have never met (James) McGee, (Charles) Ray or any ambassador who has been in Zimbabwe,” he said.
Minister Nguni said the embassy officials could have met someone else or it was “just one of their own assessments done from someone’s desk at the embassy”.
“Everything they are saying is contradictory because I never made any such statements as a deputy minister. It’s senseless!”

According to whistle-blowing Wikileaks, Minister Nguni told the US politics and economy chief in Harare and his deputy that he was a “minister in transition and would speak on his own, not government’s behalf”.
“He proceeded to say that he saw no evidence of policy shifts in Zanu-PF, or any indication of clarity on the economic front.

“He suggested that Zanu-PF, in a face saving move under a Government of National Unity, would allow the MDC to introduce economic reforms, recognising that the ruling party was incapable of tackling the problems on its own.”
Minister Nguni, according to the latest cables released last week, allegedly told the embassy officials that in his view, political reforms could no longer be stopped.

“He feared that the MDC could allow the negotiations to drag on to the point that the process was overtaken by ‘other events’ (unnamed) and the MDC lost everything.”
Zanu-PF and the MDC formations had signed the Global Political Agreement on September 9 that year.
The Zanu-PF central committee member, on his highest priority economic reform, called for the immediate “elimination of all the price distortions that the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe had introduced”.

“He called RBZ Governor (Gideon) Gono too powerful, too political, and ‘part of the problem’.
“Prodded about what ministry he would like to head in a new government, he asserted that he could turn the agriculture sector around in six months as its minister,” the cable indicates.
“His closing message to emboffs (embassy officials) was that more Zanu-PF members wanted change than wanted the status quo.”

Minister Nguni, who served as the deputy minister of agriculture, is on the US, European Union and Australian sanctions lists.
In his end note to the cable, former US Ambassador to Zimbabwe Mr James McGee noted that Minister Nguni, a former chief executive of the Cotton Marketing Board (now Cotton Company of Zimbabwe), was a potential Zanu-PF minister of agriculture acceptable to MDC in the inclusive Government.