AN explosive leaked audio recording allegedly of First Lady Auxillia Mnangagwa (pictured) has exposed the simmering bad blood between President Emmerson Mnangagwa and the military.<\/p>\n
This comes hardly two years after the military, led by then Zimbabwe Defence Forces commander Constantino Chiwenga, ousted former President Robert Mugabe and installed Mnangagwa in a military-assisted operation. Chiwenga is now Vice-President, but has not been seen in public for months now as he is reportedly battling ill health.<\/p>\n
Repeated efforts to get a comment from the First Lady proved fruitless yesterday as she was not picking up her mobile phone throughout the day.<\/p>\n
But Information secretary Ndabaningi Mangwana said from the information he received, the audio seemed to have been manipulated.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe information I received is that there is a lot of manipulation and simulation of the First Lady\u2019s voice on the audio circulating,\u201d Mangwana said.<\/p>\n
Zimbabwe National Army spokesperson Lieutenant-Colonel Alphios Makotore said he was unaware of the alleged audio, hence he could not comment on its contents.
\n\u201cI am not aware of the said audio,\u201d Makotore said.<\/p>\n
The audio, in which the First Lady ranted at a top military commander, went viral on Monday. The First Lady rails at one Murombo believed to be Colonel Samson Murombo, the commander of 1 Presidential Guard Infantry Battalion situated at Josiah Magama Tongogara Barracks (formerly KGVI), whom she accused of \u201cspying\u201d on her. The battalion is responsible for protecting the first citizens\u2019 official residence and guest house.<\/p>\n
The audio may have inadvertently laid bare the tensions between Mnangagwa and the rank and file of the military that was the power behind his rise to State House in November 2017.<\/p>\n
The audio revealed a skittish, but combative character of the First Lady who used abusive language to attack Murombo.<\/p>\n
It is understood that the eight-minute-long audio could have been recorded last month when First Lady Auxillia was in Bulawayo visiting former First Lady Janet
\nBanana, the wife of the late former President Canaan Banana, as well as veteran nationalist Jane Ngwenya, and Zodwa Dabengwa, the widow of the late Zapu
\nleader, Dumiso Dabengwa.<\/p>\n
However, it is still a mystery how the recording was leaked and who recorded it in the first place.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re spying on me,\u201d Auxillia reportedly accused Murombo, who was not given a chance to respond to the allegations even though he pleaded with her to defend
\nhimself.<\/p>\n
Murombo is occasionally heard pleading: \u201cExcuse me Your Excellency,\u201d but the First Lady curtly responded: \u201cJust tell me what you want from me because if I die,
\nit would be you.\u201d<\/p>\n
The unmistaken voice of First Lady Auxillia further accused Murombo of using someone called Manjoro, believed to be a Central Intelligence Organisation
\noperative and member of her security detail, to spy on her.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou must waylay me on the road. I\u2019m coming from Bulawayo. If you don\u2019t, straight away I\u2019m coming to your office and you can do what you want with me. You can\u2019t deal with women like this. I\u2019m going to make a story about this. I\u2019m coming to your office to sit there. What threat am I? To who? What threat do I have?\u201d Auxillia ranted.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou draw your confidence from the fact that you have a gun. I\u2019m coming there and you can shoot me. If you don\u2019t shoot me before I get there, we\u2019ll kill each other in your office.\u201d<\/p>\n
The First Lady also claimed that she was aware of a plot to kill Mnangagwa and said those who wanted to do so could go ahead, but leave her alone because she had children to look after.<\/p>\n
She went on to describe Murombo as a man with an \u201cugly face\u201d, who was \u201ctrying to get to Mnangagwa through me\u201d.<\/p>\n
When Murombo asked if he could be afforded a chance to speak, she yelled back: \u201cGet away! I\u2019m just a mere woman, a grandmother. Go and shoot Mnangagwa, I ask for a pardon. Don\u2019t shoot me because I\u2019ve children. Just shoot Mnangagwa, because I know this is all about him. Just go and shoot him, why do you want to shoot me? What have I done? What threat do I pose to you Murombo? I don\u2019t even know your wife. I don\u2019t discuss politics, I don\u2019t discuss military issues. I\u2019m coming to your office.\u201d<\/p>\n
In May, the First Lady stormed the government-owned NatPharm and demanded to see documents showing where they were sending drugs.<\/p>\n
She vowed not to leave the NatPharm warehouse \u201cbefore they provide me with the current distribution list of the medicines they dispatched\u201d.<\/p>\n
At NatPharm, she was captured on video quizzing officials about stockpiles of undistributed medical drugs at a time most public hospitals were without drugs.
\nEarlier, she had also been recorded threatening to confront mobile network operators over tariff hikes at a gathering in Masvingo province.<\/p>\n
Political analysts and opposition parties have repeatedly been questioning First Lady Auxillia\u2019s \u201cphilanthropic\u201d work, which has reportedly seen her interfering in government business.<\/p>\n
But Auxillia hit back then, saying opposition political parties should not remain in election mode and should stop attacking citizens concerned with the well-being of Zimbabweans, including their supporters.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have been a health ambassador for quite some time and my role is to help the vulnerable in whatever possible way. When I (paid) a visit to NatPharm, I had asked the Minister of Health (Obadiah Moyo) to accompany me so that I could appreciate their operations. It is unfortunate that he was in a meeting. He sent a representative,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Moyo said then: \u201cIndeed, we discussed with the First Lady about her familiarisation tour of NatPharm. Because I was engaged elsewhere, I dispatched one of my senior staffers at the ministry to accompany her. In relation to a meeting I had with NatPharm executives, it was a scheduled meeting which was not influenced by the First Lady. She is merely fulfilling her philanthropic work, nothing more nothing less. In any case, she is now our ambassador for health and child care.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
AN explosive leaked audio recording allegedly of First Lady Auxillia Mnangagwa (pictured) has exposed the simmering bad blood between President Emmerson Mnangagwa and the military. This comes hardly two years after the military, led by then Zimbabwe Defence Forces commander Constantino Chiwenga, ousted former President Robert Mugabe and installed Mnangagwa in a military-assisted operation. Chiwenga […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":1047,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,12],"tags":[222,124,31,380,552],"class_list":{"0":"post-11296","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-all-news","8":"category-policy","9":"tag-first-lady-of-zimbawe","10":"tag-military","11":"tag-mnangagwa","12":"tag-moyo","13":"tag-zapu"},"yoast_head":"\n