HARARE – Four vehicles were torched in the early hours of Friday outside properties owned by Mutapa Investment Fund CEO John Mangudya, Zanu PF-linked businessmen Wicknell Chivayo and Kudakwashe Tagwirei and DA Motors, police said.

The vehicles were driven to locations in Avondale, Highlands, Newlands and Goromonzi between midnight and 4AM where the drivers parked and started the fires before jumping into waiting getaway vehicles, national police spokesman Commissioner Paul Nyathi said.

Chivayo’s IMC Communications is based in Avondale, Tagwirei runs his businesses from Argyle Road in Newlands while Mangudya’s business complex was the target in Goromonzi. A fuel station owned by DA Motors was the target in Highlands, apparently because of the company’s links to Tagwirei.

The attacks are believed to be linked to Wednesday’s comments made by outspoken war veteran Blessed Geza, who claimed the four men were “criminals around the president.”

Geza, wanted by police on treason charges, has called for a nationwide “uprising” against President Emmerson Mnangagwa moved to coup-prof himself gwa’s rule on March 31.

The vehicle that was reduced to a shell outside the perimeter wall of Kudakwashe Tagwirei’s offices
Saved… The fire started at a fuel station owned by DA in Highlands was quickly put out by employees who used fire extinguishers

Mnangagwa has put security services on alert, while also removing the army chief amid fears his former allies are plotting a coup.