By Still under the mission of clamping down ‘criminals’ that worked alongside and under the former Zimbabwe President, Robert Mugabe, the new government led by President Emmerson Mnangagwa is reported to have arrested Zimbabwe’s now former Vice President, Phelekezela Mphoko, under allegations of using his then office to wrongly.
Mr. Mphoko has been Zimbabwe’s second Vice President to Mugabe, after Emmerson Mnangagwa. He was appointed into office in 2014, and has worked in the office until November 2017, when the military seized Harare and his boss [Mugabe] resigned.
In the event where the military took over Harare and later on seeing to the changing of government, Mr. Mphoko is reported to have had already flown out of the country on the 14 November, just a day to the military’s invasion, for a business trip.
It is so reported that Mr. Mphoko didn’t return home from then, until Friday 1, December, when he returned home and immediately was said to be arrested by the Zimbabwe Defense Forces (ZDF).
According to the sources, Botswana, where the former VP has been all along, gave Mr. Mphoko until December 1, to leave the country voluntarily, or face deportation.
It is also claimed that he didn’t leave from Botswana on his will, but was deported by the government of Botswana back home, who were also asked to do so, by the Zimbabwean Authorities.
‘Impeccable sources in Plumtree say that the Botswana immigration authorities on Friday, handed over former VP Phelekezela Mphoko to the Zimbabwe Defense Forces (ZDF), who are said to be holding him now,’ said Jonathan Moyo, former Higher and Tertiary Education minister.
The Botswana government has however spoken otherwise, concerning the issue.
‘Former Vice President Mphoko was not deported from Botswana… Mphoko entered Botswana on the November 22, 2017. He departed from the country on Friday of his own free will,’ the government of Botswana said in a statement released to clarify Mphoko’s return home.
‘In the context of media reports, speculation and inquiries, this is to note for the record that the former Vice President of the Republic of Zimbabwe… Mphoko, was not deported or otherwise forced to leave Botswana,’
In July last year, Mphoko reportedly descended to Avondale Police Station in Harare at night and ordered the release of Moses Juma, former acting Chief executive officer of Zinara, and Davison Norupiri, a non-executive director, who had been arrested by the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (ZACC), on allegations involving over $1.3 million.
Mphoko ordered the release calling the culprits his ‘boys’, and Robert Mugabe, the then President is said to have had been out of the country, in Rwanda.
In May this year, the former VP is said to have done the same thing as he stormed into Bulawayo Police Station and ordered a release of several ZANU-PF activists in the connection with the intra-party violence.
Furthermore, Mthonisi Nsingo a Bulawayo businessman who runs Double Fresh Bakery has filed a $2.1 million lawsuit against former Vice-President Phelekezela Mphoko for alleged abuse of office.
Nsingo is alleging that his business collapsed when it was supplied with expired flour by Bulk Commodities and its directors Imran Shazaan and Qaumar Shazaan. When Nsingo tried to get compensation from Bulk Commodities for the rotten flour, Mphoko allegedly used his political office to protect the two Pakistani businessmen.
Despite all the sources indicating that Mphoko is under the ZDF custody, the ZDF spokesperson says that the news is false, and denied it all.
‘It is not our duty to arrest people, that is the duty of the police. You should be calling Mai Charamba to ask about that,’ Colonel Overson Mugwisi, the ZDF spokesperson said.
Just as well, Mai Charamba, the police spokesperson when reached, she is reported to have professed complete innocence of the matter.
‘I am not aware of such an arrest. I have been so busy these last few days and I have not heard anything of that nature.’
Reporter: Shamilah Namuddu