FORMER Environment and Tourism deputy minister Annastancia Ndlovu (pictured), who is now a full-time employee at Zanu PF headquarters in the party’s directorate, has strongly denied reports that she was sexually abused by President Emmerson Mnangagwa while she was a minor in Midlands.
BRENNA MATENDERE
The sensational reports were made by Australian-based Zimbabwean citizen Susan Mutami on the micro-blogging social media site Twitter recently.
Mutami has filed a police report in Australia against Mnangagwa, whom she alleged raped her several times from the age of 15.
Tagging Mnangagwa’s official Twitter handle, Mutami said the country’s leader “used to sleep with Annastancia Ndovu, the late Melody Dziva when they were minors too. I knew Annastancia before she even became a child parliamentarian. It’s a clique of older men who abuse young vulnerable women in society under the pretext of providing assistance.”
Dziva, who became the youngest female Zanu PF legislator at 28 in 2013 and died in 2020, was Midlands proportional representation Member of Parliament.
However, in an exclusive interview with The NewsHawks, Ndlovu, who was once an MP for Shurugwi, said Mutami was not her advocate and must only speak for herself.
“To start with, I was never a child parliamentarian as she alleges. I joined Zanu PF while at Midlands State University when I was 19 years old, which means I was already an adult. I became an MP at 27. So her (Mutami) reports are utter nonsense. She must also let Dziva rest in peace,” Ndlovu said.
“We will not get our attention diverted by agents of the country’s detractors. Their attacks give us more inspiration to stay focused. We keep our eyes on the ball. I know President Mnangagwa as a great and principled leader, father, teacher and a strict disciplinarian.”
Asked if she ever visited Mnangagwa’s Precabe Farm in Sherwood, Kwekwe, where Mutami said some sexual abuses by the country’s leader took place, Ndlovu said: “I only went there when there were Zanu PF party programmes.”
On 19 November 2017, Ndlovu was among several other ministers and top Zanu PF officials who were fired from the party for belonging to a faction known as G40 which sided with the late President Robert Mugabe just before the coup that finally toppled the long-time ruler.
The other ministers who were fired together with her are Jonathan Moyo (Higher and Tertiary Education), Saviour Kasukuwere (Local Government), Ignatius Chombo (Finance), Patrick Zhuwao (Public Services), Walter Mzembi (Foreign Affairs), Makhosini Hlongwane (Sports), and Samuel Undenge (Energy).
Paul Chimedza and Mandi Chimene, who were provincial ministers for Masvingo and Manicaland respectively, were also fired on the day.
Innocent Hamandishe, who held the Zanu PF youth league national commissar’s post and Kudzanai Chipanga, the then youth league secretary, were also fired together with Ndlovu.
Other senior Zanu PF officials who also joined the list of expulsions were Leticia Undenge,
Eunice Sandi-Moyo, the late Sarah Mahoka, Tongai Kasukuwere and Shadreck Mashayamombe.
However, while most of these officials are still under expulsion, Ndlovu is now a member of Zanu PF working at party headquarters in Harare.
Ndlovu was re-admitted to Zanu PF on 26 October 2018, barely a year after having been expelled from Zanu PF.
She occupies the post of director for Economic Affairs at Zanu PF headquarters where former Mines minister Obert Mpofu is overall head of such portfolios on the basis of his position as secretary for administration.
Ndlovu denied the assumption that the re-admission showed her closeness to Mnangagwa, which Mutami highlighted in her public spat.
“Am I the only one who was re-admitted?”
“We are working strongly behind President Mnangagwa under his stewardship, as we say ‘nyika inovakwa nevene vayo’ (the country is built by its owners) and we don’t want sideshows. Mutami must find other ways of seeking Australian citizenship. I have never met her and so how does she know me? Where did she see me when I was a minor?” Ndlovu asked.
Ndlovu has lately fared well in life.
She now sits as the director of Manna Ventures (Pvt) Ltd, a company with interests in mining, smart agriculture, image branding, public relations and brand repositioning, as well as investor promotion.
In addition, she is vice-president of the Affirmative Action Group (AAG), which is led by gold baron Scot Sakupwanya.
She is also the current international representative for southern Africa at the Leaders Without Borders Development Centre.
Before 2018, she served as vice-president of the World Federation of Democratic Youths based in Budapest, Hungary.
She has been the human resource specialist at the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority based at the institution’s head office in Harare.
At the 2021 Zimbabwe International Trade Fair, Ndlovu won the Excellence in Diplomacy and International Affairs Award.
