Documents shown to The Standard indicate that Tsvangirai told the principals at the meeting that the deployment of soldiers in rural areas was undermining civil authority.
The issue of deployment of soldiers has been discussed in several National Security Council (NSC) meetings but no solution has been reached.
“The commanders have not furnished the NSC with reports as legitimately expected nor have they carried out the implied direction of the NSC to account for and recall to barracks all soldiers that were deployed under the Maguta programme or AS (Army Special) duties,” reads the document in part.
Tsvangirai also told Mugabe the security sector had been undermining the authority of the Prime Minister for the past two years.
The documents say there has been reluctance from both line ministries and the service chiefs to accept the new dispensation “coupled with a deliberate display of disrespect” for the Prime Minister’s office.
“Instead a trend is discernible where there is an attempt to create exclusive zones where the military and the security sector are seen as equal and competing institutions,” says the document.
“The same observation applies to the conduct of the PSC (Public Service Commission) chairman Dr (Mariyawanda) Nzuwa who, in contravention of executive authority of the President of the Republic of Zimbabwe continues to decline effecting appointments to the Prime Minister’s staff.”
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This conduct, says the document, frustrates efforts in terms of the Global Political Agreement (GPA) to have national institutions that are not partisan.
Tsvangirai also complained that the appointment of a security advisor and VIP protection to the Prime Minister was being frustrated through a variety of excuses for the past two years.
“It is clear that the appointment of the security advisor to the Prime Minister and that of the VIP protection is provided for under the Presidential Directive that forms the basis of the CIO (Central Intelligence Organisation),” said the document. “In all cases it is the President that is the ultimate authority in the appointment of staff into intelligence services.”
