Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa has sacked State Security Minister Owen Ncube. In a statement dated January 10, 2022 and signed by Secretary to the President and Cabinet Misheck Sibanda, Minister Owen Ncube popularly known as Mudha was removed from his post for conduct inappropriate with a Government Minister.
Ncube becomes the second minister to be dismissed by Mnangagwa in two years. The first was former health and child care minister Obadiah Moyo over allegations on corruption regarding a $60-million deal to procure Covid-19 medical supplies.
Mnangagwa said the axing was with “immediate effect”. Sibanda said Ncube’s removal was done in terms of section 340, subsection (1), paragraph (f), as read with section 104, subsection (1) of the Constitution of Zimbabwe.
Ncube was until recently, seen as a close ally of Mnangagwa, having come into government as provincial minister in the Midlands after the November 2017 putsch.
Prior to that, Ncube had been in the ruling Zanu-PF‘s youth structures in the Midlands, which is Mnangagwa’s political base.
As state security minister, Ncube was in charge of the dreaded Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO). During the January 2019 fuel riots, he ordered a total blackout of the internet, as the government responded with a coordinated crackdown that resulted in hundreds of arrests and multiple deaths.
The United States blacklisted Ncube over a series of crackdowns on the opposition and civil liberties societies.