HARARE – First lady Auxillia Mnangagwa has apologised to military chiefs after ranting at a top commander from the Presidential Guard for FORTY-TWO MINUTES over the phone, it was reported on Friday.
An eight-minute recording of a voice call between President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s wife and 1 Presidential Guard Infantry Battalion commander Colonel Samson Murombo was leaked on the internet this week.
But The Daily News reported on Friday that there was a longer recording, lasting 42 minutes in which the first lady railed at Murombo, accusing him of spying on her.
She lost her rag after observing two aides on her security with new phones supplied by the military. She identifies the aides as a Mhlanga and a Manjoro.
In the audio released publicly, she repeatedly invited Murombo to shoot her, accusing the military of a year-long plot against her husband. Later, she changes her mind and says Murombo should shoot her husband, the President, because she has children.
The Daily News says Murombo escalated the matter all the way up to Zimbabwe Defence Forces commander Philip Valerio Sibanda who approached Mnangagwa over the matter.
“A meeting of the top security bosses reportedly discussed the issue and resolved that the matter was a storm in a teacup. The first lady, confronted over the bust-up, reportedly apologised,” the newspaper reported.
The suspected spying gadgets were phones that are used in communication by members of the Presidential Guard to protect the VVIPs outside the cities, the report says.
In recent days, it has been reported that Murombo had been transferred in the wake of the row, but The Daily News, citing sources, says Murombo and his officer are “still in their postings and free from harm or any danger.”
Meanwhile, ZimLive has been told that as the first lady railed at Murombo over the phone while on the road from Bulawayo to Harare, she got so angry somewhere near Kwekwe and ordered a military aide to get off, and he was left road-side.
The row has exposed Auxillia Mnangagwa’s legendary temper, which she has so far tried to suppress in public.
The meddlesome former Central Intelligence Organisation agent, Mnangagwa’s third wife, has reduced staff to tears – and even journalists from state media travelling with her.
The late ZBC diplomatic correspondent Judith Makwanya was reportedly at the receiving end of her outbursts. She once lost it with a journalist from The Herald because she did not like how a picture of her appeared in the paper – she was more beautiful than as portrayed.
