By A Correspondent – Former Deputy Minister of Finance and long-serving ZANU PF legislator for Mutoko, David Chapfika, died under suspicious circumstances on Thursday morning after his vehicle collided with another car and plunged off a bridge into a waterlogged riverbed, raising questions about the cause of the crash.
The accident occurred near the Mubvinzi River Bridge (Stondon), approximately 30 kilometres north of Harare and about six kilometres past the old Mutoko Road tollgate.
According to early reports, Chapfika’s Mercedes Benz MLcollided with an oncoming vehicle before veering off the bridge and crashing into the river below.
Chapfika, aged 68, was a respected veteran of both Zimbabwe’s banking sector and political landscape.
Although best known in recent years for his parliamentary and ministerial roles, he began his career as a banker, working for Barclays Bank before independence, and later for institutions such as First Merchant Bank (now BancABC), ZB Bank, and CalBank in Ghana.
He also founded Universal Merchant Bank (UniBank), which later collapsed in 2002, slightly tarnishing his legacy in finance.
As a politician, Chapfika represented Mutoko North, Mutoko South, and Mutoko East at different times and held senior positions in government.
He served as Deputy Minister of Finance, later Deputy Minister of Agriculture, chaired the Finance Committee in Parliament, and became the first chairman of the National Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Board.
He was also a member of the powerful Rules and Orders Committee.Chapfika’s death has raised alarm among some of his associates and observers, particularly because of his historical ties to the late General Solomon Mujuru and his widow Joice Mujuru.
During the height of ZANU PF’s factional wars in the late 2000s and early 2010s, Chapfika was aligned with the Mujuru-led faction, which sought to challenge then-Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s ascendancy.
Following Joice Mujuru’s ouster at the 2014 ZANU PF Congress—engineered by Mnangagwa’s faction—Chapfika was sidelined from active politics.
Though he did not publicly campaign for Joice Mujuru’s post-ZANU PF political ventures, he withdrew into private life and was known to frequent the SAPES Trust in Harare, led by academic and Mnangagwa critic Professor Ibbo Mandaza.
Friends say he would often join Mandaza and other government critics for informal political discussions over Friday lunches.
Sources close to Chapfika say that in recent years, he had become increasingly vocal about his disappointment with Mnangagwa’s leadership, especially regarding deepening corruption, economic mismanagement, and political repression.
His growing proximity to critics of the regime has fueled speculation that his fatal car crash may not have been entirely accidental.
The mysterious circumstances surrounding Chapfika’s death have inevitably drawn parallels with the controversial death of General Solomon Mujuru, who perished in a suspicious house fire at his Beatrice farm in 2011.
Although officially ruled an accident, Mujuru’s death has long been viewed by many Zimbabweans as an assassination linked to internal power struggles in ZANU PF.
His widow, Joice Mujuru, later accused some within the ruling party of orchestrating her husband’s killing to clear the path for Mnangagwa’s rise.
Compounding the unease, Chapfika’s younger brother, prominent businessman and music promoter MacDonald Chapfika, also died under questionable circumstances in 2019, collapsing outside the Munhumutapa Building—which houses the President’s offices—shortly after a meeting with top government officials over a maize import deal. He was 57.
While official government channels have attributed David Chapfika’s death to a road traffic accident, his sudden demise amid renewed political tension has left many unconvinced.
Zimbabweans online have begun to ask whether another prominent figure linked to the Mujuru faction has met a violent end in a political climate where dissent—even if subtle—remains dangerous.