HEADLANDS – Thousands of mourners on Thursday joined Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and the MDC-T national leadership in paying their last respects to the late Christpowers Maisiri, the 12 year old boy who was burnt to death by Zanu PF thugs.
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Speaking to the mourners, Tsvangirai said Christpowers blood marks a defining time in the struggle for change in the country saying never again should violence be tolerated at any level.
Tsvangirai said the government had a mandate to protect the people, more so children. He urged the police to arrest all the suspects in the case adding that they must answer for the death of the 12 year old.
Christpowers died on Saturday night after the grass-thatched hut he was sleeping in with his siblings was torched by Zanu PF thugs in an ominous sign ahead of a constitutional referendum in March and the elections in July.
Christpowers’ father, Shepherd Maisiri is the MDC Headlands deputy organising secretary. The other siblings, James, 17, Munashe, 15, Panashe and their sister, Tinotenda, 9, survived. Christpowers was a Grade 4 pupil at Ruura primary school.
A post-mortem carried out on Christpowers shows that he died as a result of excessive inhalation of carbon monoxide. The post-mortem was carried out by a pathologist at Parirenyatwa hospital in Harare.
The Zanu PF thugs have been identified as; Gilbert Makura, the Zanu PF district chairperson of Village 47, Isaac Dobo, Annah Mumbana, the Zanu PF district chairlady and Tendai Gosho. The arsonists have not been arrested.
The four have strong links to Zanu PF MP for Headlands, Didymus Mutasa. The four have also been fingered in nine politically-motivated violence incidences targeted against the Maisiri family since 2008.
