Prologue
The piling pressure from the Minister of State Security and National Protection, Monica Mpofu - who was widely known as Minister ‘No-Nonsense’ - made the Director General (DG) of the Intelligence Organisation (IO) Passmore Manake budge in and look for a way to placate his boss. Minister No-Nonsense wanted to see tangible action being taken to assuage the gaps in the IO and DG Manake took the advice for the formation of the Student Infiltration Branch seriously. She had not received her alias for no reason.
The formation of the SIB was catalysed by the exponential growth in anti-government sentiments, particularly from university students, professors and activists within the civic society, who loudly lambasted President Luckmore Murombo for what they termed “a pathological failure to improve the welfare of the citizens of the People’s Republic of Zvevanhu while fermenting corruption, gross human rights abuses and a coterie of evils that have turned the nation into a Banana Republic.” The charge sheet was as long as the Mississippi River.
Student activism had also grown in potency and virility, especially under the militant leadership of Morewars Dzapasi who doubled as the student union leader at the University of the North – the oldest tertiary institution in the country – as well as the leader of the umbrella body for all the student unions for colleges and universities in the Republic, aptly called the National Universities and Colleges Students Union. Under Morewars’ combative leadership, university students were increasingly becoming a thorn in the flesh for the government due to the incessant protests, most of which turned violent and became platforms for looting and vandalism. The momentum that student activists, civic society leaders and political opponents of President Murombo’s People’s Party of Zvevanhu (PPZ) were gaining was worrisome and – if untamed – could plunge the party into the quagmires of oblivion. Something had to be done urgently to tame the tide!
Some of the lecturers at the colleges and universities were also jumping onto the bandwagon of vociferous government critics and indoctrinating their students with anti-government rhetoric, which fuelled resentment and criticism of the government’s actions and/or omissions. One such noisy academic went by the name Professor Edmund Crescent whose notoriety for lampooning government policies and even undressing the President in his lectures unnerved Murombo’s government. Something had to be done about such loud academics to prevent their sentiments from fermenting political unrest. Crescent was particularly critical of what he termed President Murombo’s “dictatorial tendencies that manifest through a myriad of ways.” The Professor was also not amused by the lengthy title for the President, which he likened to what the leader of Uganda – Idi Amin – had done in his country.
Supreme Leader; Head of State and Government; Defeater of the British Empire; Chancellor of All of the People’s Republic of Zvevanhu’s State Universities; Commander-in-Chief of the Defence Forces; Father of the Nation; His Excellency President Luckmore Murombo.
The conception of the Student Infiltration Branch was also a direct response to the human resource crisis that the IO was facing as most of its aging human assets were relics of the liberation struggle that was fought to extricate the country from the yoke of British colonialism. As such, most of the intelligence operatives that the country relied on for its human intelligence (HUMINT) were ex-combatants who had been overtaken by the technological revolution and rapid changes in the tactics employed by terrorists, political activists and cyber-criminals, among a host of groups deemed by the People’s Republic of Zvevanhu as “threats to national security.” The redundancy of the skills of most IO officers resulted in what the Supreme Leader termed “the crisis and paradox of the century where we are protected by unintelligent intelligence officers.” As a panacea to the human resources crisis, a resolution was passed in one of the cabinet meetings for the recruitment of highly-gifted college and university students for current and future missions to close the skills gap.
“Your Excellency,” said the Minister of Propaganda, Information and Publicity, John Spike who regarded himself as the most intelligent and sophisticated of the Supreme Leader’s cabinet, “we have a crisis of epic proportions.” He was a pro at raising suspense. They called him ‘John the Orator’ and he deserved the moniker to the fullest.
“If no remedial action is taken to bolster our security systems, we might one day wake up and realise that the country has gone to the dogs.” Spike’s skills in verbosity and euphemism were second to none and he was singled out as the major culprit for the extremely long cabinet meetings as he would go round and round in circles to drive his point home. He also did not frown upon controversial topics in his debates.
“The programmes we have embarked on to empower the electorate such as free education for all and the repossession of land from the former colonial masters are progressive developments that my ministry has eloquently belaboured on as part of our mandate to publicise government projects,” he added with an aura of invincibility. “However,” added Spike, “there are many enemies of the state, detractors and sell-outs from our citizens who are inciting the public to hate PPZ and label its policies as monumental failures by focusing on economic fundamentals such as gross domestic product per capita without looking at how sovereign and empowered our people are.”
The lethargic murmurs of disapproval from some of the ministers were drowned by a deafening round of applause, a clear sign of fragmentation and disharmony in the Supreme Leader’s team. He was partly unperturbed by the rampant factionalism in his party as it helped to cement his position as all of the numerous factions jostled for his favours through a smorgasbord of ways, hero-worshipping and bootlicking being amongst the most widely used tactics. However, latest manoeuvres to replace him at the top table greatly unsettled him. As the next speaker, Minister of State Security and National Protection, took the microphone and outlined a dossier of out-dated and mediocre intelligence management strategies, it was crystal clear that if nothing was changed, the People’s Republic of Zvevanhu would still be saddled with the same problems the Supreme Leader had lampooned in his scathing opening remarks where he slightly fell short of dissolving his “inept cabinet.”
“We need a paradigm shift if ever the Supreme Leader’s dream for the country to be ahead of its enemies in so far as intelligence gathering and analysis is concerned is to be realised,” calmly commented the Minister of Happiness and Social Amenities, who also happened to be the Supreme Leader’s wife, First Lady and Mother of the Nation - Anita Murombo. “We cannot continue to rely on old ineffectual tactics and old agents who are either incompetent or both and are obsessed with showing off that they are IO agents even in beer halls yet the DNA of intelligence operatives should be to work undercover and to be able to infiltrate any identified targets without raising suspicion,” added the Mother of the Nation as everyone attentively listened to her brilliant ideas. She was widely venerated as the power behind the throne. The Supreme Leader had not only appointed her wife to the cabinet but had also gone a step further to make his son the Commander of the Defence Forces while a dozen other relatives held influential posts in state institutions, parastatals and other organisations affiliated to the state.
“I strongly support what the First Lady has just said,” interjected the Minister of Tertiary Education, Faith Zaba, in a hero-worshipping tone punctuated with respect and reverence. Faith Zaba would not miss an opportunity to impress the First Lady and the debate underway was one of her launch pads to hoist her career to dizzy heights. The popular adage in the People’s Republic of Zvevanhu was that power is sexually transmitted and the appointment of ministers greatly mirrored the ramifications of this bedroom coup. “The discontent being brewed by college and university students should be curtailed as a matter of urgency and what a better way of achieving this than using the students themselves to neutralise this wave?” She added as she moved to the jugular and proved why she was widely regarded as the ‘Devil’s Advocate’ with a penchant to propose radical strategies that sometimes worked but in the majority of cases they did not.
“I propose that the Minister of State Security and National Protection should be given the mandate to tap into the skills of intelligent college and university students by recruiting them to serve in the IO as they pursue their studies,” she concluded her speech much to the delight of the Supreme Leader and most members of the cabinet. Her speech ignited a heated debate that culminated in the passing of Cabinet Resolution Number 16 of 2000, which set the pace for the conception and birth of the Student Infiltration Branch.
