Fears for Mnangagwa’s safety following gun incident at State House

THERE are fresh concerns over President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s personal security following Tuesday’s gunfire scare at State House, involving one of his guards, the Daily News On Sunday reports.

A year after the 77-year-old Zanu PF leader survived an apparent assassination attempt during a ruling party rally at White City Stadium in Bulawayo, Mnangagwa’s security situation was again thrust under the spotlight on Tuesday when one of his guards ran amok at State House — pumping 30 shots into the air and creating panic all round.

One of the soldiers guarding Mnangagwa at State House fired several rounds of live ammunition into the air, before he was apprehended as he was about to reload his gun.

The soldier – who was identified as ‘Private Mugadu’ – was said to have been sent for psychiatric examination after the worrying incident to establish his mental well-being.

Interestingly, this occurred just after former Cabinet minister and respected war veteran, Tshinga Dube had questioned why the government had up to this day not established who was behind the Bulawayo bomb attack.

Dube had earlier in the week raised concerns over Mnangagwa’s security when he told journalists in Bulawayo that the government’s apparent “failure” to nail suspects in last year’s bombing at White Stadium could encourage more people to target the president again.

The retired army colonel spoke as investigations into the Bulawayo attack appear to have hit a dead end — more than a year after Mnangagwa narrowly escaped the apparent assassination attempt, when an explosion rocked a Zanu PF rally that he was addressing at White City Stadium in the City of Kings.

The bomb killed two of Mnangagwa’s security aides and injured scores of other people — including Vice President Kembo Mohadi and Defence minister Oppah Muchinguri-Kashiri.

“We are all very concerned about these now seemingly regular lapses of security around the president, which should not happen at all. Indeed, we had all hoped that after the Bulawayo incident all security lapses would be plugged, but here we are again. The legitimate question to ask is that is this the last such worrying incident? This is all difficult to explain, particularly as the culprits for the brazen White City Stadium attack have not been arrested, as was pointed out by Comrade Tshinga Dube this week,” a concerned Zanu PF bigwig told the Daily News on Sunday yesterday.

University of Zimbabwe political science lecturer Eldred Masunungure said Mnangagwa should be worried by the threat posed by the high levels of general disgruntlement in the country, which he suspected could have spilled to the security sector.

Professor of world politics at the London School of Oriental and African Studies, Stephen Chan, said the gunshots at State House could have been a signal that frustration is running deep within the security sector.

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