Sekeramayi speaks on security chiefs

office by favour but competence and any party that wins this year’s polls must not tamper with the structure, State Security Minister Sydney Sekeramayi said yesterday.
The MDC-T plans to revamp the sector if, it by any chance, wins the crucial harmonised elections this year.

But in an interview with The Herald at the Zimbabwe Defence College soon after delivering a lecture on “the National Security Concept of Zimbabwe”, Dr Sekeramayi dismissed the MDC-T’s proposals.

“We will be going for elections in this country and one would want to assume and expect that any government that comes into power will respect the existing institutions in the country.

“All these officers were very active in the liberation struggle and they are in their current positions not by favour but competence. We would expect that the professional role they play would be respected. We do not expect any leader to say that they do not want so and so,” he said.

“The talk about removing the commandant elements is misguided. It is not something originating internally but from external forces. It is something that we must reject. It is an attempt to destabilise the defence and security forces. It is an attempt to plant a spirit which removes the discipline that is there among the security forces but we believe that our defence and security forces will continue to be disciplined and professional.”

Dr Sekeramayi had, during his lecture, expressed surprise that Western nations led by Britain were at the forefront demanding reforms in the security sector when in fact it was their governments that helped mould Zimbabwe’s security system.

He said Britain’s M16, the US’ CIA and even the Germans played a role in training Zimbabwe’s security and defence forces and were on record priding themselves on the product they moulded.

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“May I also take this opportunity to urge you to remain steadfast against the rhetoric and cheap propaganda by retrogressive forces about the need for security sector reforms in Zimbabwe. Our security establishment is very professional. The British Military Advisory and Training Team left the country in 2001 after a 20-year stint with our army. They did not complain then, why now. In the same vein, the President’s Department held various exchange programmes with other Western intelligence services among them CIA, BND (Germany intelligence) and M16,” Dr Sekeramayi said.

The British Military Advisory and Training Team, he said, left Zimbabwe in the wake of the land reform programme.

He said the international community had confidence in Zimbabwe’s security as confirmed by its hosting of the 10th Conference of the Committee of Intelligence and Security Services of Africa next month.

The country hosts the event from May 1 to May 8 this year. The conference will draw senior African Union officials, including Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma and director-generals from 49 member states.

CISSA acts as an advisory body on intelligence, peace and security matters to the AU Commission.
Dr Sekeramayi said Zimbabwe’s security was under threat from the West which was relentlessly pursuing an illegal regime change agenda in the fervent hope of installing a stooge and puppet government that dances to their whims and caprices.

“The country has been wrongly blacklisted and labelled a rogue state by detractors in their bid to achieve their insidious agendas. It is astonishing and smacks of double standards that forces that claim to champion global democracy Nicodemously dismiss their principles at their own selective behest.

“I am, however, glad to point out that right is might and that our security organisations are equally unrelenting in their endeavour and pursuit to counter the nefarious machinations of these forces.

“The defence of our hard-won independence and national sovereignty can never be mortgaged for whatever expedience,” he said.

Dr Sekeramayi said the country’s detractors had resorted to creating and funding rogue NGOs. There are 2 500 NGOs operating in the country, the bulk of which are driven by the illegal regime change agenda.