Thieves break into tourism deputy minister Tongai Mnangagwa’s offices

By Staff Reporter

Tourism and Hospitality deputy minister Tongai Mnangagwa has confirmed a break-in at his government offices by unknown suspects on Monday night.

“We are still searching if they took anything. We have police at the scene right now,” Mnangagwa was quoted saying on Tuesday morning.

Tongai is President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s nephew.

He said suspects broke in through the ceiling.

Mnangagwa’s offices are housed at the Zimbabwe Tourism Authority (ZTA) building along Samera Machel Avenue in Harare central.

The break-in adds to the mystery of recent burglaries that have targeted the president’s close relatives.

Lately, the president’s son David Kudakwashe Mnangagwa experienced two freak break-in incidents at his Borrowdale home in Harare and a fire incident at the same property on different days.

On June 25, an intruder left six cartridges – three outside his main bedroom door and three on the lawn outside the double storey property which is located on Camel Road and is guarded by two armed police officers.

The first breach took place on June 23 at around 10PM when unknown intruders stole the top government official’s 9mm Beretta pistol with 15 live cartridges and US$500 cash which was in the bedroom as he watched TV with his wife.

Just end of last month, David Mnangagwa experienced a fire incident at the same property just before midnight.

The story of mystery break-ins targeting the president and his close relatives is however not new.

Mnangagwa alone had his offices broken into six times in 2014 when he was cabinet minister under late former President Robert Mugabe’s administration.

In one incident, when he was vice president, suspects allegedly laced his desk with cyanide at his Zanu PF offices, poisoning his secretary who had to be hospitalised as a result.

In many of the occasions, nothing was stolen while there were no arrests on any suspects.