ZANU PF politburo member and retired army general Engelbert Rugeje was reportedly involved in a car accident last week in Mt Pleasant, Harare, but emerged from the incident uninjured.
The Standard reported ZANU PF sources as saying one of the wheels of Lt Gen (Rtd) Engelbert A. Rugeje’s car came off, and the vehicle was prevented from overturning by hitting some rocks.
It is alleged that there have been attempts to cover up the accident; however, The Standard has obtained photos of the damaged vehicle. Said a source:
Our former ZANU PF national political commissar Rugeje was involved in an accident last week in Mt Pleasant during the night and is lucky to have survived.
There have been attempts to cover up the accident as the security services don’t want the matter to be discussed in the public domain.
Rugeje appeared surprised when The Standard reached out for a comment. “Who provided you with this information? Where did you hear that?” he responded tersely, declining to comment further.
Since the 2017 military coup, Zimbabwe has reportedly lost over 25 serving and retired army generals, some of whom were instrumental in the ousting of former President Robert Mugabe.
Many senior military officers have since been retired or redeployed.
Key military figures, including Rugeje, played a significant role in keeping Mugabe in power after he lost the first round of elections to opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai in 20008.
The army allegedly led a violent campaign against the opposition in the run-up to a presidential runoff that forced Tsvangirai to withdraw from the election.
In December 2017, Engelbert Rugeje was promoted from major general to lieutenant general upon retirement and became the ZANU PF political commissar.
However, he was removed from this position in 2019 and replaced by war veteran Victor Matematanda, who was later appointed as Zimbabwe’s ambassador to Mozambique.
Matematanda was succeeded in 2021 by Mike Bimha, who was then replaced in May this year by Munyaradzi Machacha, formerly the principal of the ZANU PF Herbert Chitepo School of Ideology.
Rugeje is currently the ZANU PF Secretary for Economic Affairs in the Politburo.
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