Zanu PF politburo member and retired army general Engelbert Rugeje survived death last week when one of the wheels of his car went off while driving in a bizarre incident.
Sources said the car was prevented from overturning when it hit some rocks in Mt Pleasant after its front wheel came off, leaving the former army general terrified .
There have been attempts to cover up the accident, but sources in the ruling party yesterday confirmed that it happened.
This publication is in possession of pictures of the damaged vehicle.
“Our former Zanu PF national political commissar Rugeje was involved in an accident last week in Mt Pleasant during the night and is lucky to have survived,” a source familiar with the matter said.
“There have been attempts to cover up the accident as the security services don’t want the matter to be discussed in the public domain.”
Rugeje sounded surprised when Standard People contacted him for a comment.
“Who gave you this information? Where did you get that,” Rugeje curtly said and refused to comment further.
Sources said Rugeje was still terrified after surviving the accident.
Zimbabwe has lost over 25 serving and retired army generals since the 2017 coup, some of whom played a key role in the ouster of the late president Robert Mugabe.
Other senior military officers have been retired or redeployed away from the army.
The former Zanu PF commissar and other army generals played a prominent role to ensure the late Robert Mugabe remains in office after losing the first round of elections to the late opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai.
The army led a vicious campaign against the opposition, resulting in Mugabe’s fierce opponent Morgan Tsvangirai pulling out of the contest in protest.
In December 2017, Rugeje was promoted from major general to lieutenant general upon retirement and admitted into Zanu PF as political commissar.
He is former chief of staff in the Zimbabwe National Army.
Rugeje did not last long as Zanu PF political commissar and was removed in 2019.
He was replaced by war veteran Victor Matematanda.
Matematanda was later shunted to Mozambique as Zimbabwe’s ambassador and was replaced in 2021 by Mike Bimha.
In May this year, Mnangagwa replaced Bimha with Munyaradzi Machacha, who was principal of the Zanu PF Herbert Chitepo School of Ideology and formerly director of publications.