In the UK Wilf Mbanga might be running The Zimbabwean newspaper 8200km away from Harare, but this has not stopped police in the Zim capital claiming they have launched a manhunt for him.
State television quoted police spokesperson Superintendent Andrew Phiri saying they had issued a warrant of arrest for Mbanga for publishing a story alleging that Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) Director for polling, Ignatius Mushangwe, was murdered for leaking the March 29 Presidential results in 2008.
According to police Mbanga claimed in the news report that a meeting was attended by Mugabe, Emerson Mnangagwa, CIO Boss Happyton Bonyongwe and former ZEC chairperson George Chiweshe, plus other ZEC officials, with an agenda to eliminate Mushangwe. Police say this meeting never took place and the story was meant to tarnish the image of the President.
Speaking to SW Radio Africa on Thursday Mbanga said; I deny The Zimbabwean carried a story saying that Mugabe, Mnangagwa and Bonyongwe met to plot Mushangwes death. What we reported was that Mushangwe had a meeting with officials from ZEC, ZRP, CIO and the army at which he complained about the rigging of elections and he was shouted down. Mushangwe was to disappear and was found dead later on.
I have lived here for six years and have been in telephone contact with the police PR department on numerous occasions seeking confirmation of stories. Instead of launching a manhunt for me in Zimbabwe, to soothe those egos I might have bruised, the ZRP would best serve the nation by hunting for the murderers of Mushangwe. We expect ZRP to issue warrants of arrest for those who killed more than 200 people during the 2008 election period, Mbanga told us.
In 2008 well placed sources had told SW Radio Africa that Mushangwe spilled the beans on how Mugabes regime planned to print surplus ballot papers to rig the June 27 Presidential run-off. He was allegedly murdered by a hit-squad from the military intelligence, led by Staff Sergeant Makwande, to silence him in an operation that was approved by the Joint Operations Command (JOC). The sources described the assassination as, a dry operation, a dry disposal because it was carried out in a hurry. After being kidnapped in June, Mushangwes partially charred body was found dumped in Norton 5 months later. Highlighting the involvement of the state was the fact that state agents forcibly took his body from his Waterfalls home and buried it in the Mukumba Village of Chihota.
Family members say Mushangwe was meant to be buried at the Granville Cemetery in Harare but agents from the notorious Central Intelligence Organization forced his wife and eldest son to sign a letter consenting to the burial in Chihota. The wife protested the forced change but was told security concerns warranted his burial outside Harare.
Post published in: News