An arson attack on the home of Sybeth Musengezi who is mounting a legal challenge against President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s 2017 rise to power is being investigated, Zimbabwe police report.
The case was due for hearing on Monday, but Musengezi’s lawyer said the matter was delisted from the court roll, pending the outcome of the appeal against two other parties joining the case.
Musengezi, a Zanu-PF member, said his house was attacked by four masked men. They threw an incendiary object into his vehicle and into his home.
He and his family were unharmed but one room and his vehicle were completely ruined. 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 Mnangagwa as party leader after Robert Mugabe was ousted in 2017.
Musengezi argues the party did not follow its own constitution and that Mnangagwa is not the legitimate head of the party.
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 he had received death threats with some unmarked cars periodically parking outside his residence.
Zanu-PF spokesperson, Tafadzwa Mugwadi rejects any claim that Zanu-PF was behind the attack. He accused Musengezi of playing the victim in order to curry fame.