Last night a security analyst whose name cannot be revealed identified Muzavazi as the main man in the Zimbabwe State Intelligence and admited that the organisation will never be the same without.

Mugabe has lost many of his close aides in cabinet, government departments, army, airforce, police this year. 

In April this year, Deputy Director General in the feared State intelligence organisation, the CIO, Menard Livingstone Muzariri died and in September, DeputyDirector (External) Nothando Thuthani, also died aged 57. She was the highest ranking woman officer in the CIO.

Another senior security operative close to the Mugabe family, Deputy Commissioner General in the Zimbabwe Republic Police, Barbara Mandizha also died this year.

Muzavazi, whose Chimurenga name was Rukato Tunhu Twacho, died on Friday morning at Parirenyatwa Hospital at the age of 53 after a long battle with kidney ailment.

Mugabe described the late Muzavazi as a hardworking and courageous member of the President’s Department.

"The kidney ailment is also the disease that took my first wife, the late Sally Mugabe, who came from Ghana. Muzavazi was a man who stood for the truth all the time. He was dedicated to his duties and showed great loyalty to the party," said President Mugabe. 

President Mugabe also paid tribute to the dedication by the country’s security forces in protecting the country’s territorial integrity and said there is need to emulate the patriotism by individuals such as Muzavazi. 

The Director General in the President's Department, Happyton Bonyongwe said Muzavazi was a dedicated cadre who imparted knowledge to junior members of the department. 

"When I joined the department in 1998, I found him already there. He would advice me on how to undertake some of the duties of the department. He was one of the veterans and pioneers of the President's Department," Bonyongwe said.

Muzavazi joined the liberation struggle in 1976.

After finishing his military training, Muzavazi was deployed to Gaza province where he rose through the ranks to become a Detachment Commissar up to the time of independence.

After independence, Muzavazi joined the army before being deployed to the President’s Department where he worked up to the time of his untimely death.

He is survived by five children and wife, Cecilia.

He will be buried this Sunday at his Ndezvevambire Farm in Goromonzi.

The Central intelligence Organization (CIO) has admited that its top priority for the past decade had been to prop-up President Robert Mugabe in his political duel against Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai.

The revelation came days after Mugabe himself let the cat out of the bag, when he told mourners gathered for the burial of CIO deputy director general Menard Muzariri that he had used the country’s intelligence services to spy on his political opponents.

An opinion article published in the State media the Sunday Mail, attributed to State Security Minister Sydney Sekeramayi, CIO  Director-General,  Happiton Bonyongwe, as well as officers and employees of the Department, said Muzariri’s assessment of the capabilities and vulnerabilities of adversaries was always spot-on.

“This is what the very best intelligence does. Over the last 10 years, our focus was on deflecting multi-faceted regime change efforts aimed at the nation,” the CIO said in the op-ed.

“It was a task that Cde Muzariri excelled in, given that his brain was wired for detecting, processing and countering such threats. Intelligence is often compared to putting together a jigsaw puzzle without a picture to go by, and a lot of pieces missing. Cde Muzariri did not just give us a piece or two — he gave us the picture itself.”

The president’s remarks came after two Zanu PF Members of Parliament voted against their preferred party’s candidate, Simon Khaya Moyo, for the Speaker of Parliament’s post, handing victory to the MDC-T’s Lovemore Moyo.

“Are all the members who are in Zanu PF really party members?” Mugabe asked. “What do you do in the dark? Some run to our enemies and divulge our secrets. Muzariri and company would tell us who was selling out. The party’s intelligence does not come from books but intelligence officers who talk to people and drink with them.”

And former State Security Minister Nicholas Goche also revealed how the CIO engineered an operation to thwart MDC street protests against President Robert Mugabe’s government dubbed the “Final Push”.

Said Goche: "I worked with Cde Muzariri under difficult conditions when I was still Minister of State Security, especially after the year 2000 when there were machinations from the British and their stooges to reverse the gains of our independence.