ZIMBABWEAN-BORN and Oxford University associate professor,
Miles Tendi has launched a book which claims that the late army general,
Solomon Mujuru, did not die in an ordinary fire hence there was a deliberate
scene contamination by the State.
Mujuru, an illustrious fighter of the 1970s Zimbabwe
liberation war, died mysteriously in an inferno at his Beatrice farm in August
2011.
An inquest into the death of the first black national army
commander of independent Zimbabwe concluded in March 2012 that there was no
foul play in his death, despite widespread speculation that the general had
been killed in a Zanu PF political power play.
But in a book titled, The Army & Politics in Zimbabwe:
Mujuru, the Liberation Fighter & Kingmaker launched at the School of
Oriental and African Studies in the United Kingdom on Monday, Tendi also
explained that Vice-President Constantino Chiwenga never forgave the late
general after allegations of an affair with his wife.
In videos of the launch posted on Twitter by Zimbabwe
journalist Violet Gonda, Tendi said inconsistencies in the narrative of the
death of Mujuru points to an internal job in Zanu PF. He said Mujuru was buried
with no DNA evidence.
He queried why the VIP Protection Unit claimed ignorance on
some things they had been hired to do in protecting the late liberation war
supremo.
“The VIP Protection Unit could not explain why they only
realised at 1:40am that the house was on fire, why they did not break the
window at 1:40am to enter the farmhouse to rescue Mujuru,” Tendi questioned.
“The VIP Protection Unit stated that they did not know
where Mujuru’s bed was located, yet the same VIP security had been providing
security at Mujuru’s farm for a record duration of time, compared to past
officers assigned there.”
He added: “Is it inconceivable that after three months of
guarding the farmhouse, the security did not know, could not locate the massive
bedroom where the person they were trying to protect slept?”
Mujuru, long seen as the kingmaker in Zanu PF after
catapulting Mugabe to the Zanu PF leadership at the famous Mgagao Declaration
of October 1975, was believed to be the power behind the ascendancy of his
wife, former Vice-President Joyce Mujuru in 2004.
Many people believed his intention to elevate his wife to
the post of Mugabe’s deputy was to block the rise of President Emmerson Mnangagwa,
the then powerful contender in the Zanu PF succession race.
Displaying pictures of the late general’s charred body in
his presentation, Tendi queried the uneven way Mujuru’s body was burnt and why
the State overlooked the contradictions in the statements by his security
personnel.
He said the officers said they interacted with Mujuru
before he met his death, but contradicted each other, with some saying he was
sober while the others said he was drunk, but the contradictions were never
interrogated in the inquest.
In some of the tweets, Gonda wrote: “Book reveals it was no
ordinary fire that killed the general even though the State said no foul play.
Tendi: there was deliberate scene contamination by the State.”
In another tweet, Gonda wrote: “Tendi says beef between
General Chiwenga and Solomon Mujuru was because of an alleged sex scandal.
Chiwenga never forgave Mujuru after finding his army jacket in his bedroom.” Newsday
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