Mujuru assassination claims slammed

via Mujuru assassination claims slammed | The Sunday Mail 6/3/2016

Western institutions are trying to prop up Zimbabwe People First leader Dr Joice Mujuru as seen by publication of reports coinciding with her party launch last week claiming her husband, General (Retired) Solomon Mujuru, was the victim of a political assassination.

The unsubstantiated claims came soon after Dr Mujuru told a British newspaper that Rtd Gen Mujuru was shot, without providing a shred of evidence to support the claim.

She claimed the national hero was shot by “people in power”.

Rtd Gen Mujuru died on August 15, 2011 when fired gutted his Ruzambo farmhouse. A March 2012 inquest presided over by Harare provincial magistrate Mr Walter Chikwanha concluded there was no foul play, while a postmortem by Dr Gabriel Gonzalez said death had been caused by carbonisation due to open fire.

Police investigations led by Assistant Commissioner Chrispen Makedenge found no evidence of foul play.

Mr Chikwanha ruled, “Despite the suppositions, speculations, conjectures and suspicions by various people including the deceased’s relatives, nothing concrete and no evidence at all was placed before the court to show that there was foul play in the death of the deceased.

“The facts and evidence presented before the court, therefore, do not show that there was foul play and consequently the court concludes that there was no foul play.”

Now, four years later, Dr Mujuru and her British backers are claiming the general was murdered.

Political analyst Mr Alexander Rusero said, “While General Mujuru’s death remains a mystery, equating mystery to assassination is an unfair judgment. The Oxford University Journal claims murder but does not point to murderers, meaning the research is not informed. The research must . . . produce evidence if it is to stand the test of time.”

Midlands State University’s Professor Nhamo Mhiripiri weighed in: “The widow has a right to inquire about the death of her husband and the responsible authorities are obliged to answer. Forensics like any other science is subject to prone to error because it is conducted by human beings.

“Whether it is a political move to gain sympathy from people or it is indeed a genuine call to the cause of General Mujuru’s death no one knows, but even the President himself questioned the manner in which the general died.”