HARARE - Germany has strongly protested to Zimbabwe after a mob attacked the official vehicle of German Ambassador to Zimbabwe Albrecht Conze in Harare this week. (Pictured: German ambassador to Zimbabwe Albrecht Conze)
The ambassador and his driver survived the attack Tuesday night unscathed, made a police report and protested to the minister of Foreign Affairs Simbarashe Mumbengegwi. The official Mercedes-Benz limousine’s window was damaged but no one was physically harmed, the embassy said in a statement.
“The ambassador’s driver had been forced to stop at the Churchill Road/College Road junction as another vehicle, coming out of College Road, had the right of way. As the vehicle stopped, the rear right window was twice hit from outside with a heavy (probably metallic) device. However, the badly damaged window resisted, and the aggressor not visible from the inside of the vehicle – refrained from hitting a third time something he could have done to finally smash the window. The driver then managed to speed off from the scene. Neither he nor the ambassador were injured, said a statement.
The attack comes hardly a week after the ambassador penned an article on empowerment, ‘Best practices for Empowerment a German view,’ that has infuriated the authorities. The shadowy columnist, Nathaniel Manheru, (widely believed to be Mugabes spokesman George Charamba) wrote in the Herald: “Asade kutitsika conze, sorry, konzi, sezita rake. Zimbabwe is no land for the archetypal supple African of colonial lore. We are a very proud, self-believing people, and that he must be told in stark language, that man. That is the language Germans understand. They are not well known for any aristocratic graces, whether by deed or by tongue. You talk to them on their rough terms, and they understand you, respect you even,” Manheru wrote in last week’s instalment.
The attack on the German ambassador’s vehicle highlights the risks Western diplomats face working for their interests in Zimbabwe.
Post published in: News