admin
raised more questions than answers.
Police sources say investigations indicate that the matter appears to be the party’s grandstanding ahe-ad of the Sadc summit this weekend.
The Sadc extraordinary summit is slated for this Saturday and will be held on the sidelines of the Comesa, Sadc and East African Community Tripartite Summit in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Police sources yesterday said it was startling that an official report was made more than 17 hours after the incident.
The sources also claim that chances were high that evidence could have been tampered with before the report was made.
The bombing reportedly happened at around 1 am on Sunday.
ALSO READ…
Police spokesperson Senior Assistant Commissioner Wayne Bvudzijena yesterday confirmed re-ceiving the report and said investigations were in progress.
“Yes, police received the report at around 6pm on Sunday and we were told that it had happened at 1am. We are still carrying out investigations to try and establish what happened,” he said.
Snr Asst Comm Bvudzijena urged members of the public to immediately report to police incidents of such a nature.
“To avoid contamination of the scene, such cases should be reported as soon as possible so that police effect investigations,” he said.
Snr Asst Comm Bvudzijena said there was no po-lice guarding the house on Sunday as a result of manpower shortages.
“It does not affect the MDC-T ministers and deputy ministers only. It also affects Zanu-PF ministers and deputy ministers and some judges as well – although they are entitled to police guard . . . We have a serious shortage of manpower,” he said.
Sources close to investigations said the whole incident was suspicious and it appears parties involved wanted to manipulate the events.
“If you look at the time the scene occurred and the time of reporting, it simply shows that someone was trying to prepare the scene to suit his/her agenda.
“If it was a genuine thing, reporting was the first thing which should have been done as a matter of urgency,” said the source.
According to the sources, this was a ploy by the MDC-T to hoodwink Sadc ahead of the weekend meeting.
The sources added that indications of previous petrol bombings that have been reported before have led them to the MDC-T as perpetrators.
“As far as we have gone with investigations, it is a political gimmick as we are aware that the Sadc meeting is on in a few days,” added the source.
“Zimbabwe is aware of petrol bombs and indications have directed us back to the MDC-T as the perpetrators,” he said.
Harare provincial police spokesperson Inspector James Sabau urged people to report any cases to the police in time so that they would quickly attend to the scene of the crime.
“It makes our job difficult if a case takes time to be reported because we will lose a lot of evidence since the scene would have been tampered with,” he said.
Meanwhile, Government says reports claming that Finance Minister, Biti’s house’s house had been bombed are part of the MDC-T political grandstanding ahead of the Sadc Summit.
Secretary for Media, Information and Publicity, Mr George Charamba, said the reports were riddled with a lot of inconsistencies rendering the story incredible.
“This was a propaganda political petrol bomb so poorly done ahead of the Sadc Summit in South Africa. If the idea was to draw attention to Minister Biti and his party, then the MDC-T needs to be a little bit more inventive next time,” said Mr Charamba.
He noted that it was strange that the Minister was said to have narrowly escaped death, yet the same reports indicated that the Minister was not home when the alleged bombing occurred.
“Anywhere who uses petrol bombs in the country’s politics – it is the MDC-T, they should not blame violence, which is in their own party. It’s a poor selling point for their party,” he said.
Media reports had sought to blame the State, claiming that the police officer who guards the residence had left the property.
“This whole issue of a police officer being unavailable is nonsense. Anyone enjoying VIP police protection, including myself, one would know that of late the police have been overstretched by way of manpower, they have been struggling to deploy because of serious transport handicap, thanks to Minister Biti who will not give them resources. Anywhere I hear that the police officer at the Minister’s residence had been taken ill and remedial action was taken immediately,” he said.
Recent investigations by the police have revealed that MDC-T was behind some of the petrol bombings in and around Harare.
Earlier this year, a petrol bomb was detonated at Mbare’s Siya-So market stalls in what investigations indicated was an attack by MDC-T youths.
In February this year, five petrol bombs were thrown at the Zanu-PF district offices in Mbare by the MDC-T again.
The MDC-T supporters are also suspected to be behind petrol bombs, which were thrown at Harare Central Police Station and the CID headquarters in Harare.
Between March 15 and 25, 2007, four police stations in Chitungwiza, Marimba, Sakubva and Gweru were petrol-bombed by suspected MDC-T activists, resulting in serious injuries to two policewomen and damage to property. Police suspected MDC supporters were responsible for both attacks and arrested five suspects in connection with the Gweru attack.
They also attempted to blow up a railway line in Norton.
Presently there are factional fights within the MDC-T with supporters of Mr Biti and party leader Mr Morgan Tsvangirai involved in the skirmishes.
Previous internal squabbles in the party even led to physical attacks on former senior members Professor Welshman Ncube, Priscillah Misihairabwi-Mushonga and Trudy Stevenson.
Online Reporter