Zimbabwe Minister Who Plotted Mugabe’s Removal Dies At 65

The Minister of Agriculture in Zimbabwe, Perrance Shiri, who plotted the coup against former President Robert Mugabe in 2017, has died.

The President of Zimbabwe, Emmerson Mnangagwa, noted that the retired general died on Wednesday.

The deceased who commanded the air force for 25 years until he joined the government in 2017, was admitted to hospital on Tuesday and died in the early hours of Wednesday.

“Shiri was a true patriot, who devoted his life to the liberation, independence and service of his country,” Mnangagwa said in a statement.

Domestic media while revealed the cause of his death noted that 65-year-old died due to complications from the respiratory disease caused by the coronavirus, which has infected 2,817 and killed 40 in Zimbabwe.

A liberation war veteran, Shiri had a chequered past. He commanded the army’s Fifth Brigade unit that carried out the 1980s massacres of thousands of civilians in western Zimbabwe as the government sought to quell an insurgency.

The army massacres, known as ‘Gukurahundi’, a Shona term meaning the ‘early rain that washes away the chaff’, remain a sore point for the people of the Matabeleland region, many of whom demand justice and reparations.

The main opposition Movement for Democratic Change accused Shiri of being among the security chiefs who organised violence against its members after Mugabe lost the first round of the presidential vote in 2008.