HARARE police said Friday that recent claims by Rocfoundation Medical Centre founder Munyaradzi Kereke that his wife and four-year-old daughter “just vanished” are most likely a hoax.
Kereke made the revelations in a letter to the Speaker of Parliament on September 19, strongly hinting that his former boss – Reserve Bank governor Gideon Gono – was responsible.
He claimed his wife and child had disappeared on September 13, adding: “Indications so far suggest that foul play looms large.”
But police say their investigations have revealed that Kereke’s wife voluntarily left the country for South Africa following a domestic dispute with the former Reserve Bank adviser.
Harare police spokesman Inspector Tadius Chibanda said: “Our investigations so far have revealed that there was a domestic dispute, and Dr Kereke’s wife took her child and left the house in a taxi. A gardener witnessed her leaving.
“We tracked down the driver of the Ipsum taxi who said that he had taken them to the airport. The police went to the airport and confirmed that they left on a South Africa-bound plane.”
Kereke has also claimed that an armed gang shot at one of his employees who was “trailed from the hospital to his house” before hijacking one of his cars.
Police have not been able to prove those claims but maintain an open investigation.
Linking the alleged disappearance of his wife and the shooting incident, Kereke said “these crude developments... underscore that in our country, we now seem to have semi-gods and warlords who openly terrorise others in ways that if not curbed swiftly risk edge (sic) the country on an avoidable path of instability.”
On Friday, Kereke told our correspondent by telephone: “I can’t comment on the matter.” Minutes later, he sent a brief text message stating: “On the road. Network.”
Subsequent attempts to contact him were unsuccessful as his mobile phone went unanswered.
Kereke, who left his role at the apex bank in February, has been on a crusade against his former boss Gono, whom he accuses of industrial scale corruption at the Reserve Bank.
The feud between the two men has spilled into the courts after Gono filed a US$25 million defamation lawsuit last month, which Kereke has filed a notice to defend..
Early this year, Kereke accused Gono of sending men to beat up his driver who turned up in court in a wheelchair. The case was thrown out after a medical report submitted by the driver was proved to be a forgery. The wheelchair was a stunt to gain the court’s sympathy, magistrate Kudakwashe Jarabini added in a withering judgement.
Kereke, who is fighting claims that he raped his 14-year-old niece in 2010, has filed lawsuits against three newspapers and threatened a fourth for reporting the allegations.
The quarrelsome former Stanbic employee has also been involved in public spats with Health Minister Henry Madzorera and Finance Minister Tendai Biti.