Home of Mnangagwa challenger targeted by arsonists

Zimbabwe police say they are investigating an arson attack on the home of Sybeth Musengezi who is mounting a legal challenge against President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s 2017 rise to power.

The case was due to begin on Monday, but Mr Musengezi's lawyer told the BBC that the matter was removed from the court roll, pending the outcome of the appeal against two other parties joining the case.

Mr Musengezi, who says he is a Zanu-PF member, said his house was attacked by four men with their faces covered. They threw an incendiary object into his vehicle and into his home, he told the BBC.

He and his family were unharmed but one room and his vehicle were damaged. He said that while the police should be allowed to conduct their investigations, he believed the motive was political.

Last October, he lodged a case challenging the legality of the Zanu-PF central meeting that appointed Mr Mnangagwa as party leader after Robert Mugabe was ousted in 2017.

Mr Musengezi argues the party did not follow its own constitution and that Mr Mnangagwa is not the legitimate head of the party.

“I don’t have a problem with Mr Mnangagwa leading Zanu-PF, but the leaders have to be democratically elected,” he told the BBC, adding that the arson incident would not deter him.

Mr Musengezi was arrested earlier this year and charged with fraud for using the incorrect address when he became a member of Zanu-PF in 2012. He said the charge was meant to silence him and it was later thrown out.

Prior to the alleged attack, he said unmarked cars had parked outside his home and that he has received death threats.

Zanu-PF spokesperson, Tafadzwa Mugwadi, told the BBC that the party rejected any suggestion that Zanu-PF was behind the attack. He accused Mr Musengezi of attempting to gain a profile by playing the victim.

This article originally appeared on BBC News

Photo: Sybeth Musengezi