Army brigadier, Chihuri in fierce factional war over prophet

By Tatenda Dewa |Harare Bureau|

An army general, Brigadier Douglas Nyikayaramba is locked in a fierce political war with police boss, Augustine Chihuri as Zanu PF factional fights intensify.

At the centre of the war is a 94 year-old apostolic sect prophet, Madzibaba Wimbo, currently under close military guard at his shrine in Mount Darwin in Mashonaland Central province.

Key army figures, among them Nyikayaramba, are reportedly holding Wimbo hostage so that he makes a prophecy on who will replace President Robert Mugabe, 92 and under pressure to step down.

The army generals are in support of a takeover by Emmerson Mnangagwa, Mugabe’s co-vice president alongside Phelekezela Mphoko.

Wimbo is said to have prophesied in 1957 that Mugabe would rule Zimbabwe.

Sources close to the Wimbo shrine saga told Nehanda Radio that the prophet is cousin to Chihuri who was apparently supporting him against the military hawks.

The two, said the sources, are from the same extended family, with their fathers being brothers even though they use different surnames.

They said Nyikayaramba and his backers had fabricated claims that Chihuri and Wimbo’s children who are being denied access to the shrine where their father has been a captive for long belonged to a former Zanu PF faction led by Joice Mujuru.

Mujuru was kicked out of the ruling party early last year and is now leading an opposition political movement, Zimbabwe People First (ZimPF).

“All those stories are being cooked up to discredit Chihuri and his brother’s kids (Wimbo’s children),” said a source who refused to be named.

Speculation has been rife since 2013 that Chihuri would be removed from his post for his alleged links to Mujuru. At one time, there were reports that he had already been replaced by a top army figure, Trust Mugova.

The informant said the “abduction” of Madzibaba Wimbo was “directly authorised by Brigadier Nyikayaramba whose ambitions are politically motivated (sic)”.

Nyikayaramba worked with other men named as Shepherd Chingwena, Zex Pamacheche and Ishmael Magodi in both the “abduction” of Wimbo and the alleged smear campaign against Chihuri, whose relations with the army commander, Constantine Chiwenga, are also said to be tense.

The army is providing 24 hour guard at the shrine, claiming they are protecting him from hostile church members.

However, another source said: “It is the police who must have been deployed to guard Madzibaba Wimbo if there was a genuine threat to his life”.

He added that Nyikayaramba used to offload “tonnes and tonnes” of seed maize diverted from a government command farming programme called Maguta at Wimbo’s house for delivery to the prophet’s followers as part of a Zanu PF vote-buying scheme.

The brigadier commanded the Maguta project that the Zanu PF government claimed was meant to ensure sustainable food and crop production for national benefit.

The army has set up a boom gate at the shrine and has for long been keeping out Wimbo’s children and wives from seeing the prophet.

Mugabe recently visited the shrine where he spent hours with Wimbo and later told party supporters that some people were holding the prophet at gunpoint.

Despite his visit, Wimbo remains in captivity, amid reports that the aged prophet is now hostage to succession fights in Zanu PF.

Nyikayaramba recently told the local media that the president had set up an informal commission of inquiry to establish the facts surrounding the Mt Darwin shrine saga and said he would only comment after the team completed its work. Nehanda Radio