Sybeth Musengezi, a Zimbabwean who has taken President Emmerson Mnangagwa to court challenging his leadership of the ruling party following a 2017 defacto military coup, says suspected state security agents that attacked his house were armed and indications are that they want him to drop cases he filed against the president.
In an interview, Musengezi said his life is in danger but won’t drop the cases he has filed against Mnangagwa and Zanu PF.
“Obviously these people are trying to force me to abandon the cases I filed in court. I won’t do it,” he said, noting that people who threw what sounded like petrol bombs at his house were wearing face masks.
“When I opened the curtain to check what was going on when my home alarm went off, I realized that there were four guys, two of them armed and two of them started breaking the car windows and throwing explosives inside. When I retreated, something was thrown at my window but it didn’t land inside the room. So, we ran to the other room and that is when one of the guys told others that ‘no-one is coming out of that house’.
“I didn’t see who these guys were since they had covered their faces with only holes in their eyes. Obviously they are from Mnangagwa … These people, if you remember, they arrested me for a bogus charge in May and last year I was involed in a suspicious accident. They have been coming to my house using unregistered vehicles. I realized recently that there is an influx of unregistered vehicles coming to my house.”
Musengezi said he is now living in fear. “Obviously they are trying to kill me. Someone is trying to kill me. It’s all about these cases I have filed in court.”
Police spokesperson, Paul Nyathi, said they have not yet received information related to the bombing of Musengezi's house in Harare's Sandton Park by unknown assailants.
He filed an initial High Court case in which he is seeking the removal of Mnangagwa from the position of first secretary of the ruling Zanu PF party, claiming that he was not legitimately elected.
Musengezi argues no Congress was convened in 2017 when then President Robert Mugabe was toppled in a defacto military coup.
He also wants the ruling party to postpone its Congress set for this year, saying all the leaders currently occupying top posts were not legitimately elected.