Shake-up at intelligence body

Five high-ranking directors of Zimbabwe’s Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) and several junior members will be fired next month in a shake-up precipitated by the its failure to anticipate the surge of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) in this year’s parliamentary elections.

Local media reports said the CIO had predicted that the MDC would win not more than 20 seats, an assessment they passed on to President Robert Mugabe. In the event, the party went on to win 57 of the 120 contested seats, effectively ending Mugabe’s ruling ZANU-PF party’s dominance of parliament in the country’s 20-year history since independence. The reports also said nearly all CIO officers who joined the organisation before 1985 and have served for more than 15 years would be retired. At the same time, the organisation’s nine key branches will be realigned and merged into four which will be run by senior intelligence officers.