Harare, January 27, 2012 - A Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (ZESA) official, who is part of a team of experts who examined the late Retired Army General Solomon Mujuru’s Beatrice farm house, has dismissed any possibility of an electrical fault having ignited the inferno that reduced Mujuru’s body to ashes.

Douglas Chiradza Makungu, who is customer service officer at a ZESA station in Beatrice, told a Harare magistrates' court Thursday during Mujuru’s ongoing inquest that when he conducted an inspection at the late Mujuru’s house, he discovered that the pipes through which electrical cables run had not been damaged by the fire.

“The wiring in the house was in iron pipes,” he said

“In cases of a fault occurring inside such a pipe, the pipe should also have been burnt or grazed a bit. But we observed the pipes had not suffered such damage.”

Makungu went further to say further investigations that included interviewing the late Mujuru’s house maid showed that there was not high currency carrying appliances that the deceased could have used during the fateful night, dispelling any thoughts the fire could have been caused by a ZESA fault.

“ZESA’s responsibility only goes up to the electrical meter in so far as serving the customer is concerned. My conclusion is that the electricity cables were actually burnt by the fire,” said Makungu.

Mukungu is a Beatrice resident who told the court he had also been acquainted to the late army commander.

He said he was later joined in the investigations by other ZESA officials who also expressed the same opinions the fire had been started by an external component.

His evidence tallies with the one given by the Fire Brigade Wednesday, that the fire that killed Mujuru was a result of arson.

Meanwhile, Chief Superintendent Chrispen Makedenge, the investigating officer into the death of Mujuru produced an assortment of 17 burnt firearms in court which he said police discovered in Mujuru’s burnt house.

Makedenge, who is Deputy Commanding Harare CID’s Law and Order division, said two of the firearms, among them an AK rifle had been discovered in the late Mujuru’s bedroom, the rest having been taken from his burnt gun cabinet.

He did not tell the court what use the firearms were.

Makedenge narrated to the court how police and a pathologist cut off flesh from Mujuru's body, collected blood samples from his younger brother to go and conduct a DNA test that would confirm he was the one burnt in the fire.

The inquest continues today during which Makedenge shall continue from where he left. So far 28 witnesses out of 42 have testified.