'Brig-Gen Paul Armstrong Gunda was assassinated by CIOs' - report

FORMER army captain Albert Matapo, who on Saturday completed his three-year jail term over an attempted jail break following his detention for allegedly plotting to topple President Robert Mugabe, has made sensational claims that former army boss Brigadier-General Paul Armstrong Gunda was assassinated by State security agents who falsely linked him to the alleged plot.

In an interview with NewsDay soon after his release from Chikurubi Maximum Security Prison on Saturday, Matapo (52) said after his arrest, he was surprised when his captors repeatedly asked him about his links to Gunda, adding that "everything made sense" when he later learnt about the general's mysterious death.

Gunda, who was Commander of One Brigade in Bulawayo and was declared a national hero, died in mysterious circumstances on June 20, 2007 after his car reportedly collided with a goods train at at a rail/road crossing near Watershed College outside Marondera, a version which has been challenged by his widow.

Matapo, a Zanu PF activist who later turned MDC-T, said he was also quizzed over former Premier Morgan Tsvangirai's political strategies.

"The exact questions were, 'How many times a week do you meet Gunda?' I said 'No, who is that?' They said 'How can you say who is that when you know him, he is part of you . . . What is his participation in UDF (United Democratic Front, the party Matapo had formed)? What role does he play? What position did you give him?' - those sort of questions. I said 'No I didn't know him and, truly, I did not know him."

Matapo said when he later heard of the deaths of Gunda, Brigadier-General Fakazi Muleya, Retired Major-General Gideon Lifa and slain MDC-T activist George Kawuzani, whose name also featured prominently during the torture spells, everything began to make sense to him.

Muleya, Lifa and Kawuzani died under mysterious circumstances during the same period.

"I don't think he (Gunda) died from an accident. Something fishy must have happened," said the former army captain.