HARARE – Impala Car Rental Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Thompson Dondo died on Saturday, going with vital information on state security agents who were involved in the abduction of university student Tawanda Muchehiwa using his company vehicle.
A company statement said Dondo died of renal failure, contradicting State media reports that he succumbed to Covid-19.
“He succumbed to kidney failure in the early hours of the 2nd of January 2021,” Impala Car Rental said.
“He is survived by his wife Matirasa Dondo, his three children Ruvarashe, Ngonidzaishe, and Mudiwa. Funeral arrangements to be advised in due course.”
Dondo refused to honor a Bulawayo High Court order obliging his company to turn over vehicle tracking data on the customer who hired the Ford Ranger vehicle used in Muchehiwa’s abduction and near-death torture.
Impala Car Rental did not comply saying police had taken all the records, and that the abduction vehicle had no tracker at the time despite Dondo earlier telling ZimLive otherwise.
The journalism student and nephew of ZimLive editor Mduduzi Mathuthu was seized by state security agents in broad daylight outside a hardware dealership in Bulawayo on July 30, the eve of scheduled anti-government protests.
Muchehiwa was blindfolded and driven to a secluded place where he was severely tortured over three days by his captors, accusing him of plotting to overthrow President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s regime.
He was released and dumped in Bulawayo with renal failure and visible external torture wounds after the High Court ordered the state to turn him over in hours.
Muchehiwa’s dramatic abduction was captured on CCTV footage obtained by ZimLive, leading to the identification of the Impala vehicle.
Soon after his capture, police raided his uncle Mathuthu’s house saying they were looking for “subversive material.”
While the critical records in Impala’s possession may never be made public, Zimbabweans now have an idea of the alleged CIO culprits involved after their names were published by exiled former information minister Jonathan Moyo two weeks ago.
He claimed to have obtained the information from intelligence sources.
Moyo identified Muchehiwa’s alleged abductors as state security agents Mqondisi Ncube of Gwanda, William Manzunzu from Bikita, Joseph ‘Wasu’ Ndlovu from Chipinge, Benson Mupamhadzi, and Tonderai Chiguya.
Others who played a role one way or the other include Frank Muzembe, Innocent Chigona, Joshua Zingwe, Ronald Musarurwa, Brian ‘Beeman’ Maguya, Samson Munyaradzi Chikadaya, Abraham Pasi, Anyway Sithole, Mungate Mungate, Fidel Murume, and Tawonga Nyemba, also known as Togarepi Ringisai, Moyo alleged.
