Intelligence agency in turmoil

Zimbabwe’s Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO), is in turmoil, with more than 100 officers lining up to quit their jobs and seek alternative employment early next year because of frustration over the way the agency is run, the ‘Financial Gazette’ reported on Thursday. Agency officials told the weekly newspaper that history was repeating itself at the CIO, where factionalism which led to the dismissal of former director-general Shadreck Chipanga and his deputy Lovemore Mukandi was now again rearing its head.

“Morale here is at its lowest. It is true that many among us are not waiting to be retrenched but we want to go and seek professional jobs elsewhere sooner,” said a senior officer. He said while the CIO was still undergoing a major restructuring exercise which would see five top directors and several juniors being axed, over 100 officials had already volunteered to go. The CIO is believed to employ between 800 and 1,000 officers nationwide.

Other officers interviewed by the ‘Financial Gazette’ this week said the factionalism which began during Chipanga’s time and saw officers splitting and aligning themselves to different camps of Zimbabwean politicians had been difficult to eradicate. The officers said politicians secretly vying for the presidency regarded the CIO as a big centre for power and many of the politicians were eager to exert influence on the organisation, feared in Zimbabwe because of its notorious human rights record. Presidential elections are due in Zimbabwe in 2002.