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Editor confirms secret service involvement
MISA-Zimbabwe
October 07, 2005

Embattled Zimbabwe Mirror Newspapers Group CEO Dr Ibbo Mandaza has confirmed that the Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) infiltrated the media house by wresting a majority shareholding through a company called Unique World Investments.

Mandaza, the founding CEO and editor-in-chief of the Mirror Group, which publishes The Daily Mirror and Sunday Mirror, was suspended from the company on 3 October 2005.

He has since filed for an urgent High Court order to declare his ouster null and void arguing that his suspension was illegal, unprocedural and highly irregular.

He had earlier denied the CIO’s alleged involvement when the weekly Zimbabwe Independent broke the story of the secret service’s covert bid to take control of the two publications.

In an exclusive interview with the Voice of America’s Studio 7 published in the Zimbabwe Independent’s edition of 7 October 2005, Mandaza admitted that the CIO was behind the bid to oust him.

"Yes, Unique and (some) purported board members are all former CIO operatives … and it is clear that they report to the CIO who are the principals … the Minister of State Security and director –general of the CIO," he said.

Mandaza said he had pleaded with State Security Minister Didymus Mutasa to leave them alone but had reportedly been told off by the minister.

"I met with Mutasa in late July and pleaded with him again to leave us alone and the thing got very untidy. There were open hostilities.

"We had CIO functionaries actually stopping stories going into the newspaper for a period of one week."

Mandaza said the purported Unique World Investment deal was conducted through the Commercial Bank of Zimbabwe (CBZ) and handled and led by an unnamed businessperson and banker.

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