The inquest into the death of General Solomon Mujuru opened at the Harare Magistrates Courts on Monday with six witnesses testifying and the State presenting forensic evidence that no trace of explosives or inflammable liquids had been found.

Vice President Joice Mujuru, her two daughters, friends and relatives are attending the hearing, presided over by provincial magistrate Mr Walter Chikwanha.

Gen Mujuru died in an inferno at his farm in Beatrice in August last year. The circumstances of his death have raised considerable speculation and some senior members of the Zanu-PF and his family insist it could not be an accident.

This morning, The Zimbabwe Mail received an e mail from someone claiming to be a close relative of the late General and the message in the e mail is accusing the Vice-President of being manipulated by President Mugabe with blackmail promise that he would back her in the succession race. 

“He is selling to her the idea of holding the party together and she is falling for it, but she must be well positioned to know that she was not the only wife. Rex left many children and wives across Zimbabwe and they deserve the truth and not her selfish interest” said the relative. 

Mugabe summoned the estranged wife of the late General to the State House in the middle of the first day of the inquiry and read the riot act to his Deputy demanding that she takes control of the enquiry, and also rein-in relatives, the e mail revealed.

On Monday Vice-President told journalists outside the court she was happy with the proceedings and expected the inquest to unveil the truth, but our source says Mujuru’s family are calling that public posturing and accuse her of not telling the truth and obsession with salvaging her political ambitions by kicking the issue about her husband’s death into the long grass.

“It was a good beginning, but during the proceedings, I was called by His Excellency (President Robert Mugabe) and when I returned, some witnesses had already testified.

Sources in the Zimbabwean intelligence confirmed this morning that President Mugabe is having direct access to the proceedings and security agents are taking notes and monitoring every detail.

“We know that when she went to see the President he said something that has dramatically changed her views about the focus of this enquiry, and from yesterday she has become aggressive to some of the close family members” said the relative in an e mail message.

The message also said Mujuru’s close relatives now suspects the Vice-President is now being drilled on daily basis by State security agents who have put her on 24 hour surveillance and the President himself is calling the shots on how to control the proceedings and questioning of witnesses by relatives.

In the message, the Vice-President is also accused of abandoning her initial public statement that “the General was active and still in reasonable physical health to be able to escape through the windows if a fire broke out”.

Conspiracy theories are being floated following the suspicious death of one of Zimbabwe’s founding fathers and a national hero in the war for independence, but analysts closely monitoring the inquest have already identified the plan to blame police officers and what the State media says are anomalies and inconsistencies in the witness testifying and that would leave the verdict hanging in the air. 

The prime strategy devised by State spy agency, CIO is to nail three ZRP officers on duty - Augustinos Chinyoka, Obert Mark and Lazarus Handikatari and to attack the statement by key witness Clemence Runhare, a Mujuru’s relative and private security guard who said he heard gunfire shots and also claimed the General had a mysterious passenger in his car when he arrived.

Using army members and police officers to give out sticthed-up statements in courts against political opponents is not new to Zanu PF and the CIO.

In 1995, Zanu Ndonga leader Ndabaningi Sithole was arrested, charged and found guilty on attempted assassination of President Mugabe and a member of the army was the key State witness.

On Monday, Police officer Obert Mark said he opened the inner gate as the General drove into the yard. Five minutes later, he returned to the gate and the General drove to the eastern gate where another security guard, Samuel Lewis opened the gate leading to the Ruzambo Shopping Complex.

The Star witness Clemence Runhare, a security guard who was manning one of the farm's main gates on his own.

He said Gen Mujuru arrived at the farm around 8:05pm and he opened the gate for him.

"Before I opened the gate, I saw that he was in the company of another person. I did not identify who the other person was because we got information to the effect that his other driver had gone to Harare so I assumed it was him," he said.

He said after five minutes, he saw the vehicle lights going towards Gen Mujuru's shop and he did not see the vehicle return.

Around midnight, he heard noise like exploding bullets from the direction of the main farm house.

He said later, another farm guard came to him and told him that there was fire at Gen Mujuru's house.

They investigated and saw two policemen from Support Unit; one of them said they did not know where the "boss's bedroom" was.

"The police told me they did not call the fire brigade as they said they did not have a cell phone. They also said the police radio had broken down," he said.

After the fire had been put out, some high-ranking officials from Beatrice Police pointed at the remains of Gen Mujuru near a door leading to the dining room.

Asked by Mrs. Fero the identity of the other person in the car, he said he did not check because he assumed it was the driver.

He said the General did not appear drunk.

Magistrate Chikwanha asked if they had gone to the main house to investigate what was going on when they heard the noise and Runhare said he did not because they were not allowed to go to the main house.

He said at the time he thought the sound of gunshots was from poachers at the neighbouring farm.

Security provided by the police at Alamein Farm in Beatrice where Zimbabwe’s most decorated army general, Retired General Solomon Mujuru, met his death was so lax it was easy for intruders to get into the farm yard without being noticed, the inquest into the death heard yesterday.

This came out during the cross examination of Constable Obert Mark, one of the three policemen who were manning the farmhouse on the fateful day.

Mark, who appeared scared and jittery during cross-examination, was constantly asked by the magistrate to speak up as his voice was very low. He told the court it was not possible for the guarding police to see what was happening at the south gate entrance of the farm.

He was being cross-examined by Joel Mujuru, an elder brother of the late commander.

“How strong is your security and can you say that it is reliable at the south gate entrance?” Joel Mujuru asked.

He continued: “As the police guarding the place would you say people could easily gain entrance through the south gate and if you were to notice that there were people — for example — seven people on Mujuru’s vehicle, how would you have possibly communicated with the guard at the south gate entrance and did you inform your superiors that your communication system had broken down?”

Mark replied: “I would say the security was not adequate. There was no form of communication between the south gate and the guardroom. Our superiors were very cognisant of the fact that our communication systems had broken down, but they never did anything about that aspect.”

Mujuru family lawyer Thakor Kewada of Scanlen and Holderness said the three policemen manning the Mujuru residence were negligent because if they had patrolled the premises at regular intervals they could have discovered the fire before it got intense.

“Was it that you and your colleagues were grossly negligent when carrying out your duties? Where were you at 11 o’clock, the time when other witnesses said the fire broke out?” Kewada asked.

Mark said they rushed to the scene of the fire as soon as they noticed flames and smoke emerging from the farmhouse.

“Constable Handikatari and I were not on duty at that particular time. At 11 o’clock I was at the cottage taking a rest. I was asleep” said Mark.

Kewada further questioned why Mark and his colleagues opted to break a window situated far away from the source of the fire when they could have tried to gain entry through other entrances closer to the fire to rescue Mujuru.

Mark said it was impossible to force entry near the source of the fire as it had intensified and there was too much smoke.

Under cross-examination by one of Mujuru’s nephews, Tendai Mundawarara, who sought clarification on whether the policemen shouted Mujuru’s name or heard screams from inside the house, Mark said they heard nothing and only saw Mujuru’s charred remains the following morning.

Mark also claimed Mujuru was drunk on the fateful day, basing his assessment of the General’s state on his eyes which he said were “bloodshot” and also on the fact that the General stammered as he spoke.

Speculation exists too because his predecessor, Josiah Tongogora, died in a car crash and because the general’s death comes at a time in Zimbabwean politics when the issues of who might succeed the 87-year-old president are being discussed.

General Mujuru’s death certainly raises the prospect of serious clashes inside the Zanu-PF politburo. He promoted the political career of his wife, Joyce, and the two of them were seen as leaders of Zanu-PF`s moderate faction favouring better relations with Mr Tsvangirai - unlike Mr Mugabe.

Defence minister Emmerson Mnangagwa is seen as a possible Zanu-PF successor. There has always been fierce rivalry for control of the party between him and the Mujurus.

Now the general’s widow will have to fight without the benefit of the ‘kingmaker’ in succession politics and his influence in the party, the army and the security services.