Mugabe inquisition into gay politicians

Robert Mugabe has ordered his spy agency to investigate and compile a list of possible gay ministers and officials in the Zimbabwe government.

President Mugabe is well known for his hatred of gays and lesbians, and has described them as being worse than "pigs and dogs". He said the British Government was made up of "gay gangsters".

He has ordered the Central Intelligence Organisation to spy on possible gay people in his administration. How CIO officials will arrive at their conclusions is unclear. "That is inside information ... those tasked with the job know how best to achieve it," one said.

Mr Mugabe may use the list to rid his cabinet of gays. Officials said he became furious when allegations of homosexuality were raised against the former president Canaan Banana. Mr Banana fled the country before being charged and convicted in 1998 of sodomising an aide.

Alum Mpofu, one of Mr Mugabe's chief propagandists during the March presidential elections and the former head of the state-owned Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation, resigned from his post after allegations of homosexuality were levelled against him. Mr Mpofu was caught in a compromising position with a man at a Harare nightclub.

Zimbabwe's Information Minister, Jonathan Moyo, Mr Mugabe's spokesman and close ally, has also been implicated in an alleged homosexual affair with Mr Mpofu.

In a separate development, the Zimbabwe government plans to investigate a white judge who ordered the arrest last week of the country's Justice Minister for contempt of court, the state-run Herald newspaper reported yesterday.

Fergus Blackie, one of only two white judges left in Zimbabwe, issued the arrest warrant last week after the Justice Minister, Patrick Chinamasa, failed to appear in court. Officials later said the minister was on a trip abroad. Mr Chinamasa said he wanted the investigation to go ahead regardless of Justice Blackie's retirement in two weeks.