A ZANU PF-affiliated group, Forever Associates Zimbabwe (FAZ), allegedly being run by the Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO), has reportedly unconstitutionally seized control of the running of the 2023 elections from the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC).
A report by The NewsHawks claims that FAZ is led by CIO deputy director-general Walter Tapfumaneyi and has thousands of officers and volunteers working to retain President Emmerson Mnangagwa and the ruling party in power.
The report further claims that FAZ agents work through intelligence structures to door-to-door campaigns, night vigils, community events, technology-based messaging and monitoring all stages of the electoral process.
Senior army commanders, both serving and retired, are reportedly unhappy with FAZ as the group has displaced them from their decades-old feeding trough of unconstitutionally running elections in the country. A military source was quoted as saying:
The problem is a clash between politics and strategy. Things just changed suddenly, without consultations, hence no proper planning.
The move to sideline the army from the electoral process, replacing them with FAZ, has caused deep divisions and tensions.
Military commanders are also reportedly complaining in the background that FAZ is an unconstitutional organisation and that its use of public funds is illegal. Said a military commander:
As the army, we don’t know anything about FAZ, except what we read in the media. Who are these people? What is their agenda and what will happen after the elections?
We were not consulted when this structure was set up and put under CIO. Can they be able to campaign and win elections for Mnangagwa and Zanu PF?
Do they have the capacity to do that? Since they are not a constitutional structure, what is the legality of what they are doing?
A government official said FAZ is not a constitutional creature that is run by a tiny section of the CIO. Said the official:
FAZ is drawing resources illegally and using the logistics and infrastructure of the CIO to carry out its unconstitutional mandate, although it is run by a tiny section of the CIO.
Unlike in the past, there is concern that FAZ has been brazen in its operations, invading polling stations and collecting people’s identity documents whereas in the past interventions were more covert.
The concern is that FAZ is a personal army or militia belonging to the President and run by CIO deputy director-general Walter Tapfumaneyi.
The group excludes some senior CIO staffers and other security agents.
FAZ reportedly has 5 910 information gatherers across the country. The FAZ agents are collecting voters’ details right down to the household level.
According to The NewsHawks, the scientific-like CIO strategy enables ZANU PF to control the electoral process in terms of structures, numbers of registered voters and the actual voting process, as well as polling stations.
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