A Report on Post Election Violence
August 07, 2000

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Plot to kill Nyarota
Daily News
01 August, 2000

A plot hatched by the Central Intelligence Organisation to kill the Editor-in-Chief of The Daily News, Geoffrey Nyarota, failed last week when the hired assassin developed cold feet and revealed details to his intended victim.

Not only did he expose the plot, he also identified the senior CIO officer directly involved and provided the names of four war veterans recruited for the assignment - and their national registration numbers. To prove the authenticity of his story, the would-be assassin, Bernard Masara, 35, of Greendale, Harare, called his CIO handler on the phone and, while the senior editors of The Daily News listened in astonishment to the conversation on a speakerphone, he discussed details of the assassination with him. In another telephone conversation yesterday he asked the CIO to be paid $100 000 to kill Nyarota. The hitman says he was recruited by the CIO to liquidate Nyarota in order to silence The Daily News because it had 'become a formidable opponent of the government'.

Masara says one morning he had gone up in the lift with his intended victim at Trustee House, headquarters of Associated Newspapers of Zimbabwe Limited, publishers of The Daily News, and that brief encounter had changed his view of the plot and decided to save Nyarota. "It was just the two of us in the lift and he greeted me," says Masara referring to Nyarota. "He asked me about my family. I decided there and then that I was not going ahead with the assignment. I decided I was not going to let him be killed. My conscience worried me. I realised he was different from the man that had been described to me. He got out of the lift and I proceeded to an upper floor before returning to the ground floor and leaving the building."

Last Thursday Masara, who had kept Trustee House and Nyarota under surveillance since two weeks before the elections in June, summoned sufficient courage and asked to see Nyarota. Earlier attempts to make an appointment had failed as he could not state his business to Nyarota's secretary on the phone. On Thursday he approached the secretary directly and revealed the nature of his business, even handing over his national identity card to her and offering to leave it with her as a sign of his good intentions. After she heard Masara's story the shocked secretary, Annie Musodza, interrupted a meeting and Nyarota was soon sitting face-to-face with Masara. Masara then revealed details of the plot to assassinate Nyarota, along with four or five other people after him.

He said the murder of Nyarota was to be the first assignment. The name of the next victim would be disclosed to him once he successfully executed the assignment. Masara revealed the names of the four-man hit squad assembled to kill Nyarota, all of them ex-combatants operating from the Zanu PF provincial headquarters in Fourth Street. A total of 10 men had been originally recruited. All were identified by name and national registration number. So was a contact person at The Daily News. Masara says he was hand-picked from the team which campaigned for Zanu PF candidate, Winston Dzawo, in the June election. Dzawo is the former deputy mayor of Harare.

Masara says he was picked because he had performed "exceptionally well" during the campaign. Dzawo lost the Harare Central seat to Mike Auret, the Movement for Democratic Change candidate, who polled 14 207 votes to Dzawo's 3 620 in the 24 and 25 June parliamentary election. Masara says two weeks before the election he was approached by an ex-combatant, who informed him that he had been earmarked for "higher things", meaning a job with CIO or with Interpol. He identified the person who had fingered him as a certain Makoni, living in Eastlea near Dura House, the Grain Marketing Board headquarters. Masara says Makoni introduced him to Robert Manungo, the Deputy Director of the CIO for Harare Province. He alleges that on one occasion he spoke on the phone to Manungo's boss, Innocent Mugabe. Mugabe, a nephew of President Mugabe has since been moved from the provincial offices of CIO within Harare Central police station complex on Kenneth Kaunda Avenue to CIO headquarters.

Masara said: "I was told there were a number of people they wanted eliminated or injured - 100 percent disability. They said they could not give me a gun because it was possible to trace the origins of the bullets through spent cartridges. This would betray the CIO. Instead we were to use simple weapons such as axes. "They asked me to recruit people, but they did not say how many. They said that our first target was The Daily News because the paper was becoming a machinery of the opposition.

Manungo suggested that we get a vehicle and use false registration numbers." Masara says he was told, once Nyarota was eliminated there were five other assignments for him before he could be employed as a CIO operative. Masara said he had asked Manungo why Nyarota had to be eliminated. "Manungo said The Daily News was campaigning for the MDC," alleged Masara. They were acting like the political commissars of the MDC." Masara says he recruited 10 people at Zanu PF Harare provincial headquarters on Fourth Street, all of them ex-combatants.

"All of them are Jambanja," he said. Masara says Jambanja is a term currently in vogue to refer to ex-combatant farm invaders. The hit squad was eventually reduced to four people headed by Masara.

Manungo promised to provided $2 000 to cover expenses during reconnaissance operations. Masara says members of the squad staked out Trustee House. He says he entered the 10-storey building on several occasions. It was on one of his visits that he rode with Nyarota in the lift. One member of the group posed as a cigarette vendor in front of the building, he says. Another has a relative working at The Daily News, and useful, so Masara says, in providing details of Nyarota's movements. To prove his story was not fiction Masara called Innocent Mugabe's office at Harare Central Police station where the CIO provincial headquarters is situated. The call was made in the presence of Nyarota and The Daily News Deputy Editor, Davison Maruziva and Assistant Editor, Bill Saidi. Masara identified himself only as Bernard and the secretary immediately recognized him. He asked for Manungo. Masara was informed Manungo would be out of the office for several days. He was given Manungo's mobile number. The nature of the conversation indicated clearly that Masara is known to the secretary. As the editors listened, Masara proceeded to phone Manungo. After he identified himself Manungo and he exchanged greetings. Manungo told Masara that he was in Kariba. Masara said he was phoning in connection with "the assignment".

Manungo first feigned ignorance of the assignment and then quickly asked if it had been accomplished. (Ndima yedu ipi yacho? Waita here?). Masara said he required funds, Manungo asked how much was required. Masara said, as previously indicated he needed $2 000. Masara later explained that the $2 000 was an advance for expenses.

A large lump sum had been promised, once the assignment was accomplished. In a separate telephone conversation, one of two made yesterday, Manungo asked Masara to name his price. Masara said he wanted to be paid a total $100 000. Manungo asked Masara to give him up to 2.30pm to put the money together. At 2.30pm Masara phoned the CIO man again. Manungo said he had not yet received the money.

"Madhara aya haana mari (These old men have no money at all)," he said in Shona, complaining that "these old men" wanted tasks carried out, but they did not have the money to pay for them. Masara immediately postponed the operation to today, after work, in the alley behind Trustee House. This was the second postponement since Thursday. While in Kariba on Thursday Manungo said he would only be returning to Harare yesterday. Masara then informed him the assignment would have to be suspended from deadline on Friday to yesterday. Manungo agreed to the postponement. "You phone me on Monday," he said to Manungo. Then Masara asked: "I assume you know the residential address of Mr Geoffrey Nyarota."

Manungo quickly responded: "Don't mention anyone's name, you. What's wrong with you? Why don't you check in the directory." Masara said he met the rest of his team yesterday. One of them revealed that he had since secured a rifle, a 303, which allegedly was unlicenced. Masara said the man suggested it might be better to carry out the assignment at Nyarota's home early this morning, rather than at Trustee House in the early evening.

Yesterday Nyarota said he was at a complete loss as to what this assignment was expected to achieve. "I don't see how eliminating me can conceivably be expected to improve the state of Zimbabwe's economy or to change the fortunes of either the government or the ruling party," he said. "They must be very desperate to go to this extent."   TOP