Ambassador's house petrol bombed

TWO Harare men reportedly petrol-bombed Zimbabwe ambassador to Botswana Thomas Mandigora's house in Highfield, accusing him of not inviting them to his annual house parties.

Richard Boroma Kwedyo (57) and Marlon Tunga Chibwana (27), who are neighbours to Ambassador Mandigora, yesterday appeared in court facing five counts of attempted murder.

They were not asked to plead when they appeared before Harare magistrate Mr Elijah Makomo who remanded them in custody to November 7.

Prosecutor Mr Tungamirai Chakurira alleged that on October 18 at 2pm, Kwedyo and Chibwana connived with Misheck Njumbani to petrol bomb Ambassador Mandigora's house at 3155 Jabavu Drive, Old Highfield.

He said the pair was not amused that the ambassador, who is their neighbour, would not invite them to his annual house parties and did not want to associate with them.

The trio reportedly met at Kwedyo's house where he supplied the others with beer bottles, sand, pebbles and wicks. Chibwana allegedly supplied four litres of petrol and Njumbani used his expertise to manufacture two Molotov cocktail devices which Kwedyo kept at his house.

At about 6pm on the same day, Njumbani, who resides at number 3154 Jabavu Drive, Old Highfield, next to Ambassador Mandigora's house, confronted Edmore Karipi a caretaker at the house.

The court heard that he asked Karipi why they were never invited to Mandigora's house parties and asked him what he would do if their house caught fire.

The following day at 2am, Kwedyo and Chibwana took turns to throw four Molotov cocktails with the help of Njumbani at the ambassador's house.

Ambassador Mandigora was asleep in the main bedroom, while there were other people in other rooms. He was awoken by the noise and alerted other occupants about the fire.

Ambassador Mandigora checked outside and noticed that there was fire near his Mercedes Benz and another ball of fire was on the lawn.

He teamed up with the other occupants of the house and put out the fire using sand and discovered that the Motolov cocktails were made of Heineken, Castle Lite and Hunters Gold beer bottles.