'Zanu-PF bigwigs wanted to kill me'

Highly regarded war veteran Rugare Gumbo for the first time narrated in spine-chilling detail ho President Robert Mugabe and VP Emmerson Mnangagwa allegedly caused his arrest and inhuman detention in dirty dungeons in Mozambique during the liberation struggle.

An emotional Gumbo said so desperate was his situation at the time that he thought that it was a matter of time before he met his maker- with some of his erstwhile comrades only being restrained from killing him by the late Mozambican President Samora Machel in 1977, who decreed that he "did not want blood on his soil".

Gumbo claimed that both Mugabe and Mngangagwa had intended to deal ruthlessly with the real freedom fighters and in particular leaders of the liberation war council that operated under the name Dare reChimurenga, in their alleged bid "to assume total control of Zanu-PF".