Exclusive: Perence Shiri shot dead as Zanu PF stalwarts clash over Mnangagwa succession
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Exclusive: Perence Shiri shot dead as Zanu PF stalwarts clash over Mnangagwa succession

 Perence Shiri

Former Zimbabwe ruling party Zanu PF stalwart, Air Marshal (Retired) Perence Shiri who become Land Agriculture Water and Rural Resettlement Minister in Emerson Mnangagwa’s administration after November 2017 coup was shot dead, contrary to claims that he died from Covid-19.

TheZimbabwenewslive gathers Shiri (65) was shot dead in Harare following a bigwigs clash during a heated meeting where they accused each other of plotting to oust President Mnangagwa from office.

Claims that he died while being taken to a Chinese facility for treatment of suspected COVID-19 are disputed, but the family said he died after severe vomiting and was showing symptoms consistent with food poisoning.

A source who spoke on condition of anonymity told this publication that Shiri was suspected to be behind leaking sensitive documents to journalists.

Shiri helped plot the ouster of his blood cousin Robert Mugabe in a 2017 coup commanded the air force for 25 years until he joined the government in 2017, was already dead when he was admitted to hospital at the end of July, with gun shot wounds, government sources said.

Shiri was alone when he died because his Bodyguards had been officially withdrawn by the government. The source said the announcement that his driver died a few days earlier was a cover-up.

Mnangagwa was forced to issue a statement after Shiri’s family objected to government claims he died from Covid-19 saying he could have succumbed to food poisoning, not COVID-19

“Now that it is confirmed that Minister Shiri died of Covid-19, we will follow World Health Organisation regulations on how the funeral should proceed,” Mnangagwa said during a funeral wake at Shiri’s home in Harare.

In 2008 Perence Shiri was shot in the right shoulder by unknown attackers as he drove to his farm north-west of Harare, seized from a white farmer eight years ago.

He earlier commanded the Fifth Brigade, accused of killing thousands of people in Matableleland during the 1980s.

Gunmen opened fire on his car on a Saturday evening. He reportedly stopped and got out of the vehicle, thinking that a tire had blown out, and was shot once in the right shoulder. He was treated at a hospital in Harare and discharged.

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