A bloodless coup was planned to remove Robert Mugabe as Zimbabwe’s president with the help of pressure from the UN secretary general, according to classified US documents.
A group of exiled Zimbabwean businessman proposed in 2007 that Mugabe could be persuaded to hand over executive power to a prime minister before leaving office completely three years later. American officials welcomed the idea, noting that it was “increasingly in circulation” in the capital, Harare, and “may not require outside intervention”.
The plot came to nothing, although it does bear similarities to the power sharing deal that saw Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader Morgan Tsvangirai become prime minister after violent elections in 2008.
A confidential memo from the US embassy in South Africa is entitled “Secret power sharing plan” and dated 30 January 2007. At the time Zimbabwe was plunging into an unprecedented economic crisis. The cable names a group of prominent Zimbabwean businessmen living in South Africa who were pushing for change but says their leader’s identity should be “strictly protected”.
Executive power was to be shifted from Mugabe to a “technocratic” prime minister. “To get Mugabe to accept the deal, Mugabe would remain president until 2010 with some power over the security apparatus, but the prime minister would run the economy and get the country back on its feet,” the dispatch says.
“All parties would work together to draft a new constitution. [The businessman] was open to ideas on who best to sell the plan, but suggested new UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon, working through an envoy like former Malaysian PM Mahathir, as possible mediators.”
Mugabe would have retained the power to appoint the ministers of defence, home affairs and national security. The prime minister would have appointed other cabinet members, particularly in the economic arena. Deployment of troops would have required the approval of both the PM and president.
In return for various reforms the international community was to agree on a phased lifting of sanctions, the “acceptance” of the extension of Mugabe’s term to 2010 and economic assistance to help rehabilitate the Zimbabwean economy.
The prime minister would have needed the backing of 85% of parliament and therefore the support of the opposition MDC.
The US embassy said it could not comment on the merits of the plan but found it “encouraging” that senior Zimbabwean businessmen abroad were discussing solutions to the country’s political and economic malaise.
“The four businessmen agreed that there is a ‘window of opportunity’ to bring positive change to Zimbabwe, opened by the deteriorating economic situation and Mugabe’s advancing age and declining health.”
Little detail was given on how Mugabe, a hero of the liberation struggle who came to power in 1980, could be persuaded to stand aside.
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