Vice President Constatino Chiwenga has told a Contradicting story to sensitional reports by President Emmerson Mnangagwa on how he escaped from the country when under siege from former President Robert Mugabe last year.
Chiwenga revealed that the Zimbabwe Defence Forces Commander General Phillip Valerio Sibanda actually helped in the safe escape of Mnangagwa not the border jumping story which Mnangagwa related.
Addressing mourners at the burial of Gogo Yowana Kubvoruno, mother to General Sibanda in Gokwe’s Dera area on Sunday, Chiwenga said he first got the information about the President’s dismissal from Government from Gen Sibanda.
Chiwenga said acting on his instruction, Gen Sibanda played a pivotal role in the escape of Mnangagwa to Mozambique until he got a safe temporary shelter in that country.
“Today I want to tell you something I had never told anyone, a secret that has been between me and General Sibanda whose mother we are burying today.
“At the height of the madness that had rocked the country in November last year when senior officials in Government were being rebuked in public, a development which culminated in the dismissal of President Mnangagwa from Government and his position as Vice President of the party, I was out of the country in China on duty.
“General Sibanda then phoned to brief me on the sad developments and I asked him what we were supposed to do.
“We then had a discussion and I said to him, this man’s life is in danger he might be killed please do everything possible to make sure that he (President Mnangagwa) gets out of the country safe and alive. Gen Sibanda acted on that instruction and the President was taken out safely,” he said.
Chiwenga said Gen Sibanda dispatched three security details who escorted President Mnangagwa out of the country before they returned into Zimbabwe through the Mozambique border despite the fact that one of them had no passport.
“General Sibanda managed to take out President Mnangagwa safely. One of the three security details who took the President out had no passport but they managed to return home through the Mozambique border without passports.
“This man did a sterling job which I thought he would not accomplish,” said VP Chiwenga.
“After taking the President out, the army under the leadership of General Sibanda remained calm, maintaining peace while the country was at a standstill until I returned.
“I returned some few days later and we had an emergency meeting and decided to launch an operation, again when we were deliberating on the name of the operation, General Sibanda was the one who came up with the name Operation Restore Legacy, which became a huge success.”
Chiwenga described Gen Sibanda as a gallant hero who left some indelible marks in the country’s liberation struggle and in neighbouring countries where he operated.
He said the General’s mother was resting in peace knowing well that she bore the country a true hero.
Mnangagwa’s sensational story included him having to walk through the Mozambique jungle through the night after escaping gun shots at the border.
“I was fired at 4pm and left the office and by 6.30 pm, one of the security guys came to inform me that he must be part of a group that had a mission to eliminate me,” he said.
“I didn’t think it was pleasurable to wait to be eliminated. I left within four hours of being fired for the Mozambican border. I arrived at the border and our side of the border stamped my passport, but before they could lift the boom for me to cross into Mozambique, it was closed. The message came that I was not allowed to leave Zimbabwe. I said in that case there was no need, I (will) go back. They said again I was not allowed to go back into Zimbabwe but I said ‘you can’t stop me’. What case have I committed? As I was walking away, they tried to fire (at me) but I have one young man, one of my twin sons, was there. He is an officer and was able to grab the weapon and I was not shot.”
The President went on: “Then you know for many years I operated in Mozambique in the department of security. I know the area and it’s infested with land mines. Those things are still there, you walk in-between strings to avoid landmines. I did (that) from about 9 pm until about 7.30 the next day. I arrived in Mozambique and we had a lift back to the border to have my passport stamped again on the Mozambican side. Then I phoned a colleague from South Africa that I was on my way to Beira. By the time we arrived in Beira, a small plane had arrived from South Africa to pick me up and I went to South Africa.”