Chihuri Alleges 'Coup Conspirators' Wanted Him Dead
Former Police Commissioner-General Augustine Chihuri claimed that his successor Godwin Matanga instructed a police constable to shoot him and burn his Greystone Park house in December 2017.
Chihuri said the fire was started in his home office burning all files, records, and 15 bibles among other things, and to make sure that the records and files were destroyed, the took a 20-litre diesel container and another container with oil.
The diesel and oil were sprayed both in the office, the main bedroom and the rest of the house except the guest wing, Chihuri alleged.
Chihuri also accused Matanga of systematically engaging in a strategy of harassing his family, relatives and workers, threatening and beating his workers at gunpoint.
Chihuri made the allegations in an affidavit filed at the High Court on Friday. He is on the verge of losing his businesses and properties to the state after allegations that he amassed the wealth through corrupt means. He said:
The harassment was made worse when my young children would be threatened by police with guns to produce their father and said that they had been sent by Matanga.
My children are suffering emotional trauma and they started having nightmares, refusing to go to school as unmarked vehicles would be following them going to and coming back from school.
Chihuri further alleged that Matanga does not even hold an O’ Level certificate, which is a basic requirement for a constable to join the police and his promotion was a reward for being a willing participant in the coup process and not on merit.
On reports that Chihuri wanted to arrest then Zimbabwe Defence Forces commander and now Vice-President Constantino Chiwenga upon his return from China at Robert Mugabe International Airport just before the coup, Chihuri said it was a lie concocted by Matanga.
