Zimdancehall sensation Winky D was forced to abandon his show at Kwekwe’s Solomon Lifestyle Cafe after Zanu PF hoodlums started pelting the stage with missiles.
While the perpetrators are yet to be positively identified reports from Kwekwe indicate that it was a preplanned and coordinated assault by Midlands gold pirates who are informally referred to as maShurugwi or al-Shabaab.
A source who spoke to Kukurigo explained the life and death situation:
“Winky D was getting ready to come on stage with his band already playing and, as he was still warming up the crowd, bottles and rocks just started flying.
“It was very violent and everyone started running away. One of the workers here saw a group of men that came in a white Isuzu hiding machetes in the flowers and we suspect these could be maShurugwi or al-Shabaab (not affiliated with the East Africa jihadist fundamentalist group).
“While everyone ran away, a small group of men remained looking for Winky D but he had somehow managed to slip away together with his band. Four of the men then went into the hotel looking for them,” he said.
The maShurugwi and al-Shabaab Midlands gold pirates are notorious for their use of violence, including murder, to solve disputes and to gain control of gold mining claims. Speculation is rife that the attack was politically motivated after Winky D fell out with Mnangagwa’s government over his new hit song “Ka Song Kejecha” which speaks on the country’s economic problems.
Winky D’s official Social Media account later said that the band was safe and sound. Said Winky D, “To God be the Glory. Management hereby informs you that Winky D and the Vigilance Band are all safe and sound. Have a blessed Christmas.”
The state media covered a brief demise of the Midlands based terrorist group following the expulsion of Mnangagwa from Zanu PF in late 2017.
But the group returned with full force and vengeance after November 2017 coup.
Murders, rape, robbery and beatings have now spread to far places in Matabeleland, Mashonaland West, Central and East and recently to Manicaland where murders and rape have been committed by the Midlands terror gang.
