President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s special envoy to the Americas and Europe Uebert Angel is facing a police investigation following allegations that he hired hitmen to kill a rival church leader.
A report was made on April 26 at Harare Central Police Station with the shocking claims that Angel, the leader of the GoodNews Church (Spirit Embassy), was linked to an alleged plot involving two suspected South African assassins to kill Apostle Batsirai Java of the Tabernacle of Grace Church in Harare.
Mnangagwa’s envoy, whose real name is Uebert Mudzanhire, and Java have been embroiled in a long running rift where allegations of extortion and blackmail engineered by the former have been flying around.
Java was married to late former prime minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s daughter Vimbai, who died following a car accident in 2019 and is a brother to another Mnangagwa apologist and ‘prophet’ Passion Java.
The fight between the two church leaders took a dramatic twist last month when Java’s security aide Nigel Dutiro approached the police about the alleged South African assassins, it has been established.
Dutiro confirmed that he made the report under RRB number 141472.
“It’s true,” he said. “I made a police report because there has been a threat to life.”
Dutiro said he could not divulge more details about the report because the matter was now being handled by the police.
It is, however, understood that the alleged plot was exposed by a woman identified as Sharon Munro, who is said to be based in South Africa.
Munro was allegedly in Zimbabwe on March 31 where she was overhead by patrons at an upmarket watering hole in Harare’s Borrowdale suburb talking about the alleged elaborate plot against Java.
She left the country on April 3 via the Robert Mugabe International Airport.
According to people familiar with the police investigations, the alleged murder plot was supposed to involve two South Africans only identified as Mkhwananzi and Ndimande, who entered Zimbabwe through Beitbridge and were later transported as far as Harare.
The plan was allegedly foiled when the details were leaked by the woman linked to Angel and the South African duo had to return home without accomplishing the task.
Java was last Sunday summoned by the police as part of the investigations, but he was coy when approached for a comment.
“l am aware that someone from my church has made a report to the police, and we are waiting for investigations,” he said.
Police spokesperson Paul Nyathi said he was yet to get a briefing from Harare police where the matter was reported before making a comment.
The person who picked Munro’s phone said she had no idea what this publication was enquiring about when asked for a comment, but she later posted the same questions on her WhatsApp status.
Angel did not respond to questions sent to him by The Standard two weeks ago.
In April last year, the controversial church leader was at the centre of a documentary by Al Jazeera’s Investigative Unit that shed light on illicit gold trade in southern Africa and money laundering involving powerful figures in Zimbabwe and the region.
Angel was secretly recorded promising undercover journalists access to Mnangagwa and his wife Auxillia for a fee.
He was promising to facilitate the smuggling of gold on a massive scale and money laundering by abusing his diplomatic privileges.