A FORMER boyfriend of Susan Mutami (pictured) and her school friends at Loreto High School in Silobela, Midlands, have validated findings by The NewsHawks that a man believed to be President Emmerson Mnangagwa she now accuses of rape visited her at odd hours at the learning institution on the pretext he was her sekuru (uncle).
BRENNA MATENDERE
The NewsHawks this week tracked down her ex-boyfriend in Gweru where he is visiting after six years of working in South Africa. In a no-holds-barred interview this week, he said Mutami’s high school boyfriend said he knew the “sekuru” who would visit her on Sundays in between study hours when all the other students were in class in 2004.
He said the “sekuru” would send a man donning a suit to go and fetch her from Class 3C while parked behind the boys’ dormitories, on a secluded space near a path that leads to Loreto mission’s pig sty.
They would sit in the car with dark tinted windows for hours. On Sundays, students at Loreto have a 9am11am study period then another session from 2pm to 4pm. In the evening, the students go back to study between 6pm-8pm.
“He would come during the morning study period just after morning church mass or in the afternoon between 2pm-4pm study period. He (Mnangagwa) would send a guy to go talk to the teacher on study period supervision who would allow her to go see him. They would sit in his car for a very long period. I came to know about it because Susan would pass by my class from hers which was just just behind our block, saying I am now going to see my sekuru,” said the ex-boyfriend.
“I once followed to see the kind of car of her sekuru and I realised that it looked like the make of a Prado we see these days, but I can’t be sure if it was indeed a Prado. When the uncle came, Susan became very liquid because he would be pampered with huge sums of money and groceries,” added the boyfriend.
He also revealed that at the time, he and many other school pupils believed the man in the tinted vehicle was indeed her uncle. The ex-boyfriend also revealed that Susan would tell him that her mother was a staunch Zanu PF supporter. “I cannot remember the position the mother was said to be holding in Zanu PF and Susan painted a picture of her being a vibrant member of the party. By the time I met Susan, her father had already died, but I am not sure at which point he had passed on exactly,” he said.
In 2004, Zimbabwe’s ministers used Toyota Prados as their off-road vehicles bought for them by the government in addition to sleek Mercedes-Benz sedans. Other wealthy government officials also owned Nissan Hardbody off-road cars that at the time were popularly known as “Machembere”.
The NewsHawks also tracked down some of Susan’s friends that were identified by her ex-boyfriend. They spoke on condition of anonymity. One of them revealed that while in Form Four, Susan confided in her that she thought she was pregnant.
“Susan during that time spent days not going to school as she was very ill. At the school dispensary she was taking some medicine and telling colleagues that it was malaria, but she confided in me that she thought she was pregnant because she had slept with a man during holidays,” said Susan’s childhood friend.
Another of her friends said she made sure all her classmates knew that her sekuru was a minister. “She bragged about being visited by the sekuru, saying he was a minister.
At that time we did not know which minister it was, but after her recent revelations it makes sense to conclude it was Mnangagwa,” said the friend.
Another friend said Susan was a “dance queen” on happy days. “On some of the Fridays, the study period for 6pm-8pm was cancelled and replaced with an entertainment slot of disco, which we called gig.
A school club called Stafford owned a PA [public address] system that they secured with assistance from Brother Mangove.”
“It was at these entertainment gigs that Susan would dance mostly when a song called Suzzana Mwana Mutema was played. She liked the song, especially lyrics in it which said Suzzana was a beautiful lady dark in complexion, which resembled her. She would dance a lot each time the song was played,” said the friend.
A teacher at Loreto High School in 2003 when Susan was in Form Three validated reports by The NewsHawks that she was a good athlete during her school days. The teacher, a swimming coach by profession, was at the time part of the sports technical department at Loreto with a special role in practical exercises (PE).
He is now a lecturer at one of the colleges in Gweru and during this publication’s visit to the Midlands capital, the news crew caught up with him.
“I cannot comment on her academic performance, but in sport she was excellent. She was into sprinting. I know her because I was into sport at the school. In terms of her behaviour in Form Three, I can’t know because when I left she was in Form Two,” he said.
During a Twitter Spaces tell-all session when she revealed the sexual abuse scandal, Mutami said she met now President Mnangagwa at Wimpy in Kwekwe where he gave her $200 million (Zimbabwe dollars).
The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe at the time had issued the bearer cheques and agro cheques. On 15 September 2003, the RBZ and Standard Chartered had issued special bearer cheques with denominations ranging from $5 000 to $20 000.
The value of $2 million which Susan was given by Mnangagwa at that time on the parallel market rate was close to US$400.
It is a sum of money that no nephew can give to a niece after meeting accidentally with her if he has no further motives. The NewsHawks visited the place which was formerly Wimpey and found out that it is now being run by food outlet Steers.
There is a Zuva Petroleum fuel service station which is just outside the food outlet formerly Wimpy, which is located at the corner of ED Mnangagwa Street, formerly Robert Mugabe Way, and Mbizo Road.
When it was still Wimpy, Mnangagwa’s ally Themba Msekiwa operated the food business there. Mnangagwa would frequent the place to see him and it explains why he met Susan Mutami at that fast food outlet.
Mnangagwa has previously been fingered as having interests in Zuva Petroleum Services and therefore the location of the Kwekwe petrol station outside his ally’s former business premises is of interest.
In 2020 there was an outcry after an announcement by Zuva Petroleum company that eight of their service stations had been granted DFI (direct fuel import) status, allowing them to receipt and sell fuel in foreign currency, when trade was restricted to the local currency.
Trading in foreign currency at the time had been outlawed for the rest of the business community, but Zuva Petroleum enjoyed an exemption not available to other players in the industry. Besides Wimpy, when Mnangagwa was Justice minister, he also frequented Crashers Inn bar along Gokwe-Kwekwe Highway, where he had a towering chair reserved for him.
Investigations revealed that he brought with him some ladies each time he went there for a drink and it is highly likely he could have also at one time taken Susan there.
Mnangagwa also frequented Rippaz restaurant in Kwekwe for coffee during the time he was minister even though he now prefers to hang around at Precabe bar inside his Sherwood Farm in Kwekwe.
In her explosive revelations of her alleged rape, Mutami levelled further allegations of sexual abuse by the President’s trusted political ally Owen “Mudha” Ncube, accusing him of preying on her each time the President had finished with her.
The revelations of rape, sleaze and sordid sexual exploitation of a poor and vulnerable minor by powerful Zanu PF leaders have shocked the nation, shining the spotlight on Mnangagwa’s sense of morality. Rape is a serious crime.
Mnangagwa’s deafening silence in the face of the startling accusations is astounding. In any part of the world, a head of state and government would have responded to the allegations.
