ARSONISTS ATTACK
…Zim police probe arson attack on home of Mnangagwa’s challenger
HARARE - Zimbabwe police say they are investigating an arson attack on the home of Sybeth Musengezi who is mounting a legal challenge against President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s 2017 rise to power.
The case was due to begin on Monday, but Musengezi's lawyer said the matter was removed from the court roll, pending the outcome of the appeal against two other parties joining the case.
Musengezi, who says he is a Zanu-PF member, said his house was attacked by four men with their faces covered. They threw an incendiary object into his vehicle and into his home, he said in an interview.
He and his family were unharmed but one room and his vehicle were damaged. He said that
while the police should be allowed to conduct their investigations, he believed the motive was political. Last October, he lodged a case challenging the legality of the Zanu-PF central meeting that appointed Mnangagwa as party leader after Robert Mugabe was ousted in 2017.
Musengezi argues the party did not follow its own constitution and that Mnangagwa is not
the legitimate head of the party. “I don’t have a problem with Mnangagwa leading Zanu-PF, but the leaders have to be democratically elected,” he said, adding that the arson incident would not deter him. Musengezi was arrested earlier this year and charged with fraud for using the incorrect address when he became a member of Zanu-PF in 2012. He said the charge was meant to silence him and it was later thrown out.
Prior to the alleged attack, he said unmarked cars had parked outside his home and that he has received death threats.
Zanu-PF spokesperson, Tafadzwa Mugwadi, said the party rejected any suggestion that Zanu-PF was behind the attack. He accused Musengezi of attempting to gain a profile by playing the victim.