THE multi-agency security team investigating a deadly
grenade attack which occurred soon after President Emmerson Mnangagwa left the
stage following his address at a rally at White City Stadium in Bulawayo in
June has been groping in the dark without any useful leads and the probe is on
the verge of being called off.
This is despite the fact that government had hired foreign
security agents, including Russian and Belarusian ballistics experts, to assist
in the investigations.
They were hired to help the local probe team, comprising of
the Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO), police detectives and the
military, which had struggled to get to the bottom of the matter. The team also
occasionally clashed over how to proceed with the investigations after several
leads yielded no results.
A grenade went off soon after Mnangagwa and other Zanu PF
leaders, including Vice-Presidents Constantino Chiwenga and Kembo Mohadi, left
the stage following his address at the stadium on June 23. Two security
personnel were killed by the blast.
The blast killed Colour Sergeant Stanley Mugunzva of the
Presidential Guard unit in Dzivaresekwa, Harare, who was assigned to Chiwenga
and Nelson Dube, a security aide to Mohadi.
Informed government officials close to the investigation
told the Zimbabwe Independent this week that despite Mnangagwa’s recent claims
that government now knew who was behind the attack; a breakthrough in the probe
still eluded investigators nearly two months after the deadly explosion.
This comes amid indications that state security agents
involved in the investigation are pulling in different directions, with
military sources saying the probe has been abandoned for lack of headway while
police sources said it was still on.
It was not immediately clear if the foreign investigators
are still in the country.
“The investigation is not going anywhere. In fact, there is
no investigation taking place anymore. There has not been any progress. No one
was prepared for this event. It took everyone by surprise and we actually
didn’t know where to start,” a military source said.
“All hope was pinned on tracing the origin of the grenade
which was used in the attack using fragments which were collected from the
scene, but efforts were hampered by the fact that we do not have proper
forensic laboratories in the country. So the fragments were taken outside the
country for analysis and we have not heard anything on that up to now and the
whole probe has lost steam.”
However, a senior detective close to the investigation said
the probe was still going on, although no motivating finding has been made.
“There is still interest in the investigation but we have
not been able to establish anything yet. There has not been any proper lead and
investigators think it’s not going anywhere,” the detective said.
A week after the attack, two Bulawayo men — Douglas
Musekiwa and John Zulu — were arrested but were later released without a charge
after investigators failed to find any evidence linking them to the crime. An
unnamed suspect, described by investigators as a tallish and dark young man,
who was initially identified by investigators as having hurled the grenade that
missed Mnangagwa by a whisker, has been kept away from formal police custody
after he was taken in by the military.
Curiously, details of the investigation have also been kept
away from police national spokesperson Charity Charamba.
“I am in the dark with regards to that. I have not received
any briefing and I will have to check with those involved in the investigation
before I can say anything,” she said. Following the attack, government has
re-organised the security arrangements around Mnangagwa, who has been seen at
public events with up to 40 close-security boduguards. Zimbabwe Independent
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