Africa-Press – Zimbabwe. Alex Tawanda Magaisa has said the expose of the alleged illicit affairs of former Vice President Kembo Mohadi should be a worrying development for both members of the ruling ZANU PF and the opposition in the country.
In his Big Saturday Read, Magaisa who is the former Chief of Staff in the office of the late former Prime Minister, Morgan Tsvangirai, said the individuals who are behind the leak definitely have access to the private lives of all the people that matter.
He made the remarks when Mohadi had since resigned after the individuals behind the expose had showed no sign of yielding when he had made threats and also dismissed the alleged evidence as fake.
Mohadi was allegedly sleeping with his married aides and Magaisa says the exposure of the illicit affairs was a deliberate attempt to compel the 71-year-old to resign.
He also suggests that President Emmerson Mnangagwa was aware of the leaks and did nothing to stop them because the expose of Mohadi’s affairs “strengthens Mnangagwa’s hand in the party.” He added:
While ZANU PF elites must fear the use of Kompromat against them, it is opposition leaders and critics who are at greater risk. While Mohadi’s was welcomed by citizens and to be fair, the man was beyond the pale, the use of Kompromat presents a serious moral hazard. This type of Kompromat represents the use of the state’s capacity to harvest information through its agencies and to weaponize it to achieve a political objective. The moral hazard is that the lack of resistance to its use might give the impression that it is a legitimate strategy. Where the current political objective is to remove Mohadi, in the future, the objective will be to go after regime opponents and critics and they will be fair game.
He described kompromat as blackmailing opponents by threatening to or actually exposing private lives they would not have otherwise wished to be in the public domain.
The United Kingdom-based law expert said this is done for bargaining in business and political deals.
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