'Kereke's life is in danger'

Munyaradzi Kereke, the Bikita West legislator, has sensationally claimed that people claiming to have been sent by Vice President Joice Mujuru and former Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe governor, Gideon Gono tried to kill him.

Kereke also claims Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) director-general Happyton Bonyongwe had hatched a plot to harm him.

The controversial  lawmaker also claims that Mujuru secretly held meetings with chiefs from Bikita and top Zanu PF officials just before the July 31 harmonised elections to scuttle his bid for Bikita West.

In a letter dated December 2, 2013 addressed to Mujuru, Kereke claims that gun-toting men threatened him and "uttered suggestive words allegedly purporting that these men were acting on the instructions of  Gono and yourself (Mujuru)."

"I am highlighting this to you so that you may be alert in case those thugs are abusing your name to tarnish your image," Kereke said in the letter.

He alleged Mujuru convened a "kangaroo court" in order to scuttle his plans to stand as Zanu PF candidate during the July general elections.

Kereke claims that Mujuru met with Zanu PF heavyweights Simon Khaya Moyo and political commissar Webster Shamu together with chiefs from Bikita in order to discredit him ahead of elections.

Kereke claims to have stepped on the toes of political "gods" in government, who include Bonyongwe, the head of the country's secret service.

In the letter, which is copied to President Robert Mugabe and police commissioner general Augustine Chihuri, Kereke claims when he reported Gono for allegedly selling state secrets to "hostile governments," Bonyongwe turned the tables on him.

"Instead (of investigating), Bonyongwe started to deploy his team on me, almost hunting me down, culminating in the direct declarations by the provincial intelligence officer for Masvingo, Ms Zindi and district intelligence officer for Bikita, Ms Huni, who both openly declared that ‘our superiors have said Kereke must be diffused.'

"General Bonyongwe is seeking to cripple me so that Dr Gono's matters are not prosecuted as he fears this might cripple him," Kereke said.

The Gono-Kereke legal feud has taken a nasty turn, bringing into the public a riveting political drama playing at the courts and threatening the very fabric of the state in general.

Kereke claims that Gono provided Bonyongwe "with millions of dollars from State funds at the Reserve Bank via a commercial bank through a company called Brinsky Investments (private) Limited for his own use."

Gono denies the allegations and has sued Kereke for defamation.

Kereke claims Bonyongwe was in on the plot.

"I wrote to Bonyongwe several times and he ignored me, only responding through passing back to Gono and launching surreptitious and overt operations on me," Kereke said in the letter.

"Zimbabwe was not liberated for fellow countrymen and women to torment each other through abuse of the machinery of the State."

In the letter, Kereke tries to explain to Mujuru the doctrine of separation of powers and for good measure advises the vice president on the attributes of a good leader.

"Hon vice President, when we, the people you lead and govern feel that executive powers vested in our leaders have been turned into cannons of fire on the people, we feel very unsafe and constitutionally violated," writes Kereke.

He warns Mujuru, widely seen as the frontrunner to succeed Mugabe, that acting against the people, "is politically ruinous to one's ambitions."

Efforts to obtain comment from the VP were futile yesterday.