ED will kill me if I’m extradited: Mzembi

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By Sibanengi Dube

JOHANNESBURG — Former Zimbabwean foreign affairs minister Walter Mzembi has said he escaped three assassination attempts in his home country and fears for his life should he be extradited.

Zimbabwe has asked the South African government to send him back home so he can face the law. He is accused of abuse of office and theft of trust funds involving US$847 000. He skipped bail and went to South Africa.

Mzembi, however, denies he stole any money but cites a long-standing beef with President Emmerson Mnangagwa as the cause of his problems.

In an exclusive interview with the Zimbabwe Observer in downtown Johannesburg yesterday, Mzembi said he would be slaughtered like a sheep should President Cyril Ramaphosa’s government extradite him.

His problems with the jittery Zimbabwean leader, he says, started a long time back just before the Tsholotsho declaration, a clandestine plot organised by a faction loyal to Mnangagwa so he could be appointed vice president, ahead of Joice Mujuru, to succeed Simon Muzenda who had died.

“Remember Zanu PF operates along tribal lines. So my fellow Karangas who included Mudenge and Josaya Hungwe tried to rope me into the team that was lobbying for Mnangagwa. So, when I refused, all hell broke loose.”

Muzembi was perceived to be standing in the way of Karangas who wanted to wrestle power from the Zezurus. He comes from Masvingo and is of Karanga extraction.

On the eve of Tsholotsho declaration, he says, former education minister Stan Mudenge, called him to his office at parliament and told him point blank that he would die if he continued to thwart Masvingo region’s quest to wrestle power from the Zezurus.

A few minutes later after walking into parliament, Mnangagwa, who was then Speaker, beckoned him to his high chair and told him not to worry about what Mudenge had told him as he would protect him.

“I wondered how Mnangagwa had, in such a short space of time, come to know about Mudenge’s threats,” he said.

The defiant Mzembi revealed that he survived three attempts on his life.

“This is not fiction,” he said, “Lucky Hakata, a freelance photographer, I had hired to take pictures of my projects in my constituency, was shot dead, execution-style in my brand new Pajero by assassins who mistook him for me. I was supposed to have gone with him but remained in Harare, owing to other commitments. About 45 minutes later, I received a call from Featherstone Police telling me my car had been involved in an accident and Hakata was dead.”

He added that when he got to the scene of the accident, the wreckage had been removed.

Mzembi told Zimbabwe Observer that at one time, the late Zimbabwean strongman Robert Mugabe warned him to be wary of Mnangagwa. “His cruelty knows no bounds and will avenge even at the slightest of provocations,” Mugabe is said to have told him.

He, therefore, maintained charges of abuse of office and theft being levelled against him were just a smokescreen for Mnangagwa to get him and execute him. He said Mnangagwa knows very well he is innocent of all the charges as he was part of the Cabinet that ratified the formation of a Trust to raise money for a tourism conference. The former foreign minister also made sensational claims that he was poisoned while in police custody.

“I have been in the system and I know how these guys operate. I never had this problem of colon cancer before my arrest. I walked out of custody only to be diagnosed with a rare condition which doctors could not explain. My affected colon was cut away, but doctors couldn’t detect how that portion got cancer as there was no tracing whatsoever,” said Mzembi.

“I had just undergone intensive medical tests just before my arrest as I was preparing to join the United Nations and no cancer was detected,” he added.

Mzembi said while in detention his cell was sprayed with a gas which was so heavy for his lungs and was given blankets with a scratching.

He also made startling revelations about how Vice President Constantino Chiwenga helped him avoid an accident that could have potentially claimed his life.

“Chiwenga called me to find out where I was and when I told him I was driving back to Harare, he told me to make a U-turn or catch a bus as there were assassins waiting for me on the Masvingo-Harare Road.” Then, he says, there was this self-confessed assassin, Munyaradzi Mupazviripo, who was allegedly promised US$50 000 if he executed him. He is said to have filed a report at Borrowdale Police Station on January 24, 2018, exposing the plot.